科學家以私人信函、電話交談、開會討論、論文交換和合作研究等非正式的資訊
管道來交換科學研究資訊，此種科學社群互動的網絡稱為「無形學院」。為瞭解科學家的資
訊傳播與尋求行為，本文探討無形學院的定義、緣起、以及相關的實證研究，並檢視期刊作
者人數以驗證科學合作研究之趨勢。

The term "invisible college" has been applied to researchers working in
the same area of research who have personal contacts with one another, meet
together at conferences, circulate preprints and reprints to one another, and
collaborate in research. To understand this informal scientific communication
network, this paper discusses the definitions and the origin of the invisible
college, and introduces some empirical studies through literature review. A
study on co-authors is also presented.