2-D representation of the relationship between intra-building collaboration and mean citation impact on the Longwood campus of Harvard Medical School. - The color gradient reflects the proportion of publications originating from each building in which both first and last authors work in the building (from pink=low to red=high).
Focus On: Longwood Medical Area | Mass General Hospital | McLean Hospital
Does physical proximity promote the exchange of ideas that result in creative and scientific productivity? In other words, does co-location promote collaboration? Investigators, architects, scholars, governmental, or university planners all have staunchly held beliefs on this matter, often informed by decades of personal experience in scholarly pursuits, or planning administration. On the basis of these beliefs, hundreds of millions of dollars are expended yearly. However, the empirical basis for these financially large and multi-year commitments is much skimpier and the standard of proof much lower than required of most academic exercises. The Harvard Co-Location Collaboration project (H-CoCo) is an empirical investigation of the various hypotheses held by the various stakeholders in the allocation and planning for research space.