World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
70
Citations
126020
World Ranking
742
National Ranking
351

Overview

Duncan J. Watts is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Their research primarily spans the social sciences, with an emphasis on sociology and political science, communication, and artificial intelligence. Watts has made contributions that intersect with statistical and nonlinear physics as well as general health professions.

The scientist's work covers a range of topics including social media and politics, misinformation and its impacts, media influence and politics, opinion dynamics and social influence, hate speech and cyberbullying detection, complex network analysis techniques, and media studies and communication.

Watts has published extensively in several key venues. Frequent publication venues include arXiv (Cornell University) with 9 publications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with 8 publications, Science Advances and Science with 2 publications each, and Nature with 2 publications.

Recent papers by Duncan J. Watts include:

  • "Evaluating the fake news problem at the scale of the information ecosystem" (2020, Science Advances)
  • "Computational social science: Obstacles and opportunities" (2020, Science)
  • "Integrating explanation and prediction in computational social science" (2021, Nature)
  • "Examining the consumption of radical content on YouTube" (2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
  • "Measuring the news and its impact on democracy" (2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

Collaborative work is a significant aspect of Watts's research profile, with frequent coauthors including:

  • David Rothschild (10 joint publications)
  • Markus Möbius (8 joint publications)
  • Homa Hosseinmardi (8 joint publications)
  • Abdullah Almaatouq (7 joint publications)
  • Liju Philip (6 joint publications)

Best Publications

  • Collective dynamics of small-world networks

    Duncan J. Watts;Steven H. Strogatz

  • Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness

    Jie Wu;Duncan J. Watts

  • Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age

    Duncan J. Watts

  • The science of fake news

    David M. J. Lazer;Matthew A. Baum;Yochai Benkler;Adam J. Berinsky

  • Network Robustness and Fragility: Percolation on Random Graphs

    Duncan S. Callaway;M. E. J. Newman;M. E. J. Newman;Steven H. Strogatz;Duncan J. Watts;Duncan J. Watts

  • A simple model of global cascades on random networks

    Duncan J. Watts

  • Redefine statistical significance

    Daniel J. Benjamin;James O. Berger;Magnus Johannesson;Magnus Johannesson;Brian A. Nosek;Brian A. Nosek

  • Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation

    Duncan J. Watts;Peter Sheridan Dodds

  • Everyone's an influencer: quantifying influence on twitter

    Eytan Bakshy;Jake M. Hofman;Winter A. Mason;Duncan J. Watts

  • Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market

    Matthew J. Salganik;Peter Sheridan Dodds;Duncan J. Watts;Duncan J. Watts

  • Networks, dynamics, and the small-world phenomenon

    Duncan J. Watts

  • Empirical Analysis of an Evolving Social Network

    Gueorgi Kossinets;Gueorgi Kossinets;Duncan J. Watts;Duncan J. Watts

  • Renormalization Group Analysis of the Small-World Network Model

    M. E. J. Newman;D. J. Watts

  • Random graph models of social networks

    M. E. J. Newman;D. J. Watts;S. H. Strogatz

  • Financial incentives and the "performance of crowds"

    Winter Mason;Duncan J. Watts

  • The “New” Science of Networks

    Duncan J. Watts

  • Scaling and Percolation in the Small-World Network Model

    M. E. J. Newman;D. J. Watts

  • Who says what to whom on twitter

    Shaomei Wu;Jake M. Hofman;Winter A. Mason;Duncan J. Watts

  • Identity and Search in Social Networks

    Duncan J. Watts;Duncan J. Watts;Peter Sheridan Dodds;M. E. J. Newman

  • An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks

    Peter Sheridan Dodds;Roby Muhamad;Duncan J. Watts

  • Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness

    Duncan J. Watts;Per Bak

Frequent Co-Authors

Sharad Goel
Sharad Goel Harvard University
Christopher F. Chabris
Christopher F. Chabris Geisinger Health System
David Lazer
David Lazer Northeastern University
Brian A. Nosek
Brian A. Nosek Center for Open Science
Thomas D. Cook
Thomas D. Cook University of Wisconsin–Madison
David Cesarini
David Cesarini New York University
Andy P. Field
Andy P. Field University of Sussex
Marco Perugini
Marco Perugini University of Milano-Bicocca
Anthony G. Greenwald
Anthony G. Greenwald University of Washington
Zoltan Dienes
Zoltan Dienes University of Sussex

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