The Sigelman Number
Lee’s memorial service was today; we’ll have more, and more substantive posts on it soon. But one thing that I learned to my surprise was that Lee had had over 200 collaborators on his published work (he had, I think, around 280 published articles). Could that be a record for political science? It certainly is more than a couple of standard deviations from the mean. Nor were these collaborators limited to a specific corner of political science (this would have been hard; no corner of political science that I know has 200 odd research active faculty); Lee was notably catholic in his interests and his collaborators (although he had some basic standards - he never collaborated with me . This history is reminiscent of that of the even-more prolific mathematician Paul Erdős. Some mathematicians publicize their ‘Erdős number’ - those who collaborated directly with him have a number of 1, those who have collaborated with collaborators have a number of 2 and so on. I suspect that Lee would be pretty centrally located in any mapping of co-authorship networks in political science - would it make sense for political scientists to calculate their Sigelman number? Fwiw, mine would be 2 (through Melissa Schwartzberg, Eric Lawrence and maybe others too).
Comments
But the real question is:
Does anyone have a finite Erdos-Bacon-Sigelman number?
Posted by: Alex | February 5, 2010 10:56 PM
I’m pretty sure the answer is yes. I have a Sigelman of 2, and I think, an Erdos of 4 (via Cosma Shalizi - I think his is 3), and if you count co-blogging as a relationship, my sister and co-blogger worked on a production with Colin Farrell, who presumably has a finite Bacon number. And if I arguably have it, others must too, and much lower I suspect than me.
Posted by: Henry | February 6, 2010 08:03 PM
“if you count co-blogging as a relationship, my sister and co-blogger worked on a production with Colin Farrell, who presumably has a finite Bacon number”
Sorry, you have to have actually starred in some production (I dunno if the medium matters e.g. TV/film etc). But there might be people out there who’ve done all three.
Anyway, I’m vaguely interested: which co-blogger, and what Farrell production?
Posted by: Alex | February 6, 2010 09:15 PM
My sister Maria, in a made for TV special before he was famous called “Falling for a Dancer” if me memory serves correctly. More here.
Posted by: Henry | February 6, 2010 10:04 PM
I have a finite Erdos-Bacon number (9). I’m not sure if/how I’m connected to Lee, but if he’s as central as being publicized, I imagine …
P.S. — you don’t need to have “starred” in a film for it to count. You just need to have appeared in front of the camera.
Posted by: Hans Noel | February 8, 2010 01:38 PM
Hans, your Sigelman number would be 2.
Lee—Feldman—Zaller—Hans
Posted by: Eric L. | February 8, 2010 02:40 PM
I was the one that mentioned the 200+ coauthors in my eulogy. There are several ways of counting. One method is the number of unique individuals. The other is the number of different times a coauthor appeared on a piece. In other words, I coauthored with Lee on six different articles. Do I count as one co-author or as six? As of the last CV Lee had given me, he had 129 unique individual coauthors on pieces that appeared in print. Unpublished conference papers are ignored. Below is the list of those who I believed coauthored with Lee on one or more occasions.
Alan Rosenblatt
Albert K. Karnig
Audrey Chen
Barbara J. Walkosz
Barbara Walkosz,
Bernard Grofman
Beth A. Le Poire
Burdett A. Loomis
Carol A. Cassel
Carol K. Sigelman
Charles Chandler
Chris O’Sullivan
Christopher Fowler
Christopher J. Deering
Clyde Wilcox
Colin Martindale
Cynthia Whissell,
Dan B. Thomas
David Bullock
David Lowery
Dean Jaros
Dean McKenzie
Dee Allsop
Dixie Mercer McNeil
Donald A. Gross
Donley Studlar
Edward C. Budd
Edwin J. Dawson
Elizabeth Cook
Emmett H. Buell, Jr.
Eric D. Lawrence
Eric Shiraev
Erik Lewis
Ernest J. Yanarella
Forrest Maltzman
Frank P. Scioli,
Frederick D. Ribich
Garry Young
George H. Gadbois, Jr.
Gregory Diamond
H. Brinton Milward,
Henry C. Kenski,
Ivy Brown Rovner
Jack K. Martin
James Christenson
James D. Slack
James Druckman
James F. Spriggs, II
James H. Lebovic
James Kuklinski
James S. Todd
James W. Shockey
Janet Box-Steffensmeier,
Jarol B. Manheim
Jason A. MacDonald
Jeffrey R. Henig
Jennifer Saunders
Jerald G. Bachman
Jeremy Mayer
John P. Willerton
Jon M. Shepard,
Karen A. Mingst
Kathleen Knight
Kenneth J. Meier
Kenneth M. Coleman.
Kenneth Newton
Kenneth Wald
Langche Zeng
Larry R. Baas
Lars Willnat
Laura I. Langbein
Lawrence W. Miller
Malcolm E. Jewell
Marcia Lynn Whicker
Margaret Goodlette
Mark Abrahamson
Mark Kugler
Mark Peffley
Matthew Hutchins
Matthew,
Melissa Schwartzberg
Michael A. Baer
Michael Bailey
Michael Combs
Michael Dumler
Michael Gant
Michael Nitz
Michael X. Delli Carpini
Miles Simpson
N. Joseph Cayer
Nelson C. Dometrius
Otomar Bartos
Pamela Johnston Conover
Paul R. Brewer
Paul Wahlbeck
Penny M. Miller
Phillip W. Roeder
Raoul Naroll
Richard A. Brody
Richard G. Niemi
Richard R. Lau
Robert Amyot
Robert Carter
Robert Meadow
Robert S. Erikson
Robert S. Neal
Roland E. Smith
Samuel Bookheimer,
Sarah Binder
Simani Mohapatra
Stan Humphries
Stanley Feldman
Stanley Presser
Steven A. Tuch,
Steven Finkel
Steven J. Balla
Susan Welch
Susannah Pierce
Syng Nam Yough
Thad Beyle
Thomas M. Konda
Timothy Bledsoe
Timothy O’Leary
Timothy Schiltz
William D. Berry
William G. Vanderbok
William Jacoby
Xie Tao
Yung-mei Tsai
Posted by: Forrest Maltzman | February 8, 2010 02:51 PM
@Eric. Thanks!
Posted by: Hans Noel | February 8, 2010 03:23 PM