Associate Professor (Tenured), Peking University
Yi Bu
I am an Associate Professor in Data Science at the Department of Information Management, Peking University, China. Before joining Peking University, I was a research fellow at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation, Northwestern University. I earned a B.Mngt. in Information Management and Information System from Peking University, an M.S. in Data Science, and a Ph.D. in Informatics from Indiana University Bloomington. At Indiana, I was supervised by Professor Ying Ding.
My research applies multidisciplinary methods to scholarly big data. I aim to contextualize and elucidate the social dynamics of the global scientific ecosystem by leveraging massive datasets, computational techniques, and social theories. Specifically, my research focuses on three threads:
-
Knowledge integration, production, and diffusion. I study how scientific knowledge is organized, combined, produced, and transformed. I use complex-system quantifications and simulations, such as configuration models, percolation, and randomization, together with emerging hypergraph and semantic-geometry approaches to map scientific fields and characterize originality, disruptiveness, and paradigm dynamics.
-
Evidence-based science management and policy. I apply causal inference methods, including difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, and matching, to study funding allocation, interdisciplinarity, scientific teams and collaboration, researcher mobility and careers, and gender and racial equity across global scientific systems.
-
AI, entities, and behaviors in scholarly publishing. I examine AI-assisted academic writing and related journal policies, biological and AI entities and their relationships, and inequalities in scholarly attention. I use machine learning/deep learning, large language models, and knowledge graphs to identify scholarly entities, roles, and interactions in knowledge-embedding spaces.
I was selected as a Baidu Scholar (2026) and received the Early-career Information Scientist Award (2025). I have also been listed among the world’s top 2% scientists in multiple years and was supported by the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program of the China Association for Science and Technology (2021). I have led various projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education of China, Peking University, and various government and industry partners. I serve as the associate editor-in-chief of Editing Practice, an advisory board member for Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology- associate editor-in-chief, and an editorial board member for eight international journals.