  We study collaboration networks in terms of evolving, self-organizing
bipartite graph models. We propose a model of a growing network, which combines
preferential edge attachment with the bipartite structure, generic for
collaboration networks. The model depends exclusively on basic properties of
the network, such as the total number of collaborators and acts of
collaboration, the mean size of collaborations, etc. The simplest model defined
within this framework already allows us to describe many of the main
topological characteristics (degree distribution, clustering coefficient, etc.)
of one-mode projections of several real collaboration networks, without
parameter fitting. We explain the observed dependence of the local clustering
on degree and the degree--degree correlations in terms of the ``aging'' of
collaborators and their physical impossibility to participate in an unlimited
number of collaborations.
