Abstract

This study aims to quantitatively analyze collaborative research structures among research institutions and major corporations in the water sector based on bibliographic information. To achieve this, we established a protocol to collect and augment usable paper data by linking metadata available from OpenAlex, Crossref, and ROR (Research Organization Registry). Paper metadata was collected via APIs provided by these institutions and organized primarily around the affiliated institutions of paper authors. Missing DOI and RORID values were supplemented using Crossref and ROR. The journal targeted in this study is Water Research. For 20,135 data points spanning 25 years (2000-2024), divided into five periods in five-year increments, three centrality metrics were selected and compared to examine the major institutions with high publication intensity and changes in co-author networks per period. The results of this case study indicate that the selection based on the eigenvector metric is reasonable. By presenting a protocol that systematically examines the collaborative structure among research institutions for specific fields using authors' institutional affiliation information from bibliographic data, this study suggested the potential for utilizing foundational data to identify research topics based on collaboration hubs across diverse fields.