Africa Villanueva-Felez, Jordi Molas-Gallart, Alejandro Escribá Esteve
The analysis of social networks has remained a crucial and yet understudied aspect of the efforts to measure Triple Helix linkages. The Triple Helix model aims toexplain, among other aspects of knowledge-based societies, “the current research system in its social context” (Etzkowitz & Leydes dorff, 2000:109). This paper develops a novel approach to study the re search system from the perspectiv e of the individual, through the analysis of the relationships among resear chers, and between them and other social actors. We develop a new set of techniques and show how they can be applied to the study of a specific case (a group of academic s within a university department). We analyse their informal social networks and show how a relationship exists between the characteristics of an individual’s network of social links and his or her research output.