Moutinho, Sônia Oliveira Matos; Grácio, Maria Cláudia Cabrini; Perianes-Rodriguez, Antonio
This study proposes Exclusive Bibliographic Coupling (EBC) as a methodological alternative to mitigate the influence of co-authorship in bibliographic coupling networks. The method excludes co-author relationships while preserving organic links between non-collaborators. The comparison between the traditional model and EBC includes analyses of author networks to demonstrate that the exclusive method reduces the appearance of links resulting from collaboration, preserving connections based on the theoretical convergence of authors' citation identities. It has been determined that EBC increases the accuracy of identifying cognitive structures and scientific domains, contributing to more consistent and reliable bibliometric analyses.