UCSF is spread all across San Francisco, with faculty members’ primary addresses spanning over a dozen zip codes. We know that geographical proximity helps collaboration, but some UCSF researchers are comfortably working with collaborators all across the university, regardless of campus.

I used UCSF Profiles data to look at researchers who have co-authored publications since 2017 with other people currently at UCSF who have primary addresses in a different zip code. I skipped publications with more than 6 total co-authors, since it’s less likely that any two co-authors collaborated directly. (See the example at the end of this post.)

I expected most of the top cross-campus collaborators to be from Epidemiology & Biostatistics, UCSF’s most internally collaborative department—but the list wasn’t as lopsided as I expected.

The list

• Isabel Elaine Allen (Epidemiology & Biostatistics) has, since 2017, co-authored 6 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 8 other ZIP codes
• Patricia O’Sullivan (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 14 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 8 other ZIP codes
• Martha Shumway (Psychiatry) has, since 2017, co-authored 7 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 6 other ZIP codes
• Christine Ritchie (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 8 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 6 other ZIP codes
• Emily Finlayson (Surgery) has, since 2017, co-authored 4 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Patrick Yuan (Epidemiology & Biostatistics) has, since 2017, co-authored 3 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Jason Satterfield (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 4 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Youngho Seo (Radiology) has, since 2017, co-authored 5 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Rebecca Sudore (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 4 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Christy Boscardin (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 7 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Gabriela Schmajuk (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 7 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Jinoos Yazdany (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 7 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Bridget O’Brien (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 6 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Mary Whooley (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 5 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Amber Bahorik (Psychiatry) has, since 2017, co-authored 10 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Derek Satre (Psychiatry) has, since 2017, co-authored 11 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• John Boscardin (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 9 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo (Epidemiology & Biostatistics) has, since 2017, co-authored 10 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Michael Matthay (Medicine) has, since 2017, co-authored 11 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes
• Eric Vittinghoff (Epidemiology & Biostatistics) has, since 2017, co-authored 21 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 5 other ZIP codes

Extended example

• A (in 94158) co-authors a paper with UCSF colleague B (in 94117) and non-UCSF person C
• A co-authors another paper with UCSF colleagues D (in 94110) and E (in 94158, the same as A)
• A co-authors one more paper with ten co-authors — which doesn’t qualify, because we only care about papers with 2-6 total co-authors
• A has therefore co-authored 2 qualifying papers with UCSF people spread across 2 other ZIP codes.

Photo: Philip Leara, public domain