https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-025-00574-6
Research
The robust-fragile duality of the ATLAS collaboration network
1
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
2
URPP Social Networks, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
3
CERN, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
4
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Received:
11
February
2025
Accepted:
10
July
2025
Published online:
30
July
2025
Big Science initiatives like the ATLAS experiment at CERN exemplify the scale and complexity of modern collaborative research. With thousands of scientists and institutions from over 40 countries, ATLAS represents a global effort to uncover fundamental aspects of particle physics. In this work, we investigate the evolving collaboration patterns within ATLAS by constructing and analysing bipartite networks of authors and countries linked to their publications. Through this dual perspective, we uncover structural features such as modularity at the author level, and a clear nested pattern at the country level, each reflecting distinct organizational dynamics: modularity highlights the formation of cohesive working groups, driven by bottom-up interactions and stabilized by institutional continuity. Nestedness, on the other hand, underscores the stratified contributions of nations based on resources and expertise, revealing both strengths and vulnerabilities in the collaboration. Using percolation analysis, we assess the robustness of these patterns to perturbations, finding that modularity ensures resilience to individual turnover, while nestedness reveals fragility to the loss of some key contributors. These findings shed light on the interplay between structural organization and dynamical stability in large-scale collaborations, offering insights for managing and optimizing similar scientific endeavours.
Key words: Big science / Collaboration networks / Robustness / Fragility
© The Author(s) 2025
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