  This article examines the relationship between acquaintanceship and
coauthorship patterns in a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional,
geographically distributed research center. Two social networks are constructed
and compared: a network of coauthorship, representing how researchers write
articles with one another, and a network of acquaintanceship, representing how
those researchers know each other on a personal level, based on their responses
to an online survey. Statistical analyses of the topology and community
structure of these networks point to the importance of small-scale, local,
personal networks predicated upon acquaintanceship for accomplishing
collaborative work in scientific communities.
