Old and recent theoretical works by Andrzej Pȩkalski (APE) are recalled as possible sources of interest for describing network formation and clustering in complex (scientific) communities, through self-organization and percolation processes. Emphasis is placed on APE self-citation network over four decades. The method is that used for detecting scientists' field mobility by focusing on author's self-citation, co-authorships and article topics networks as in Refs. 1 and 2. It is shown that APE's self-citation patterns reveal important information on APE interest for research topics over time as well as APE engagement on different scientific topics and in different networks of collaboration. Its interesting complexity results from "degrees of freedom" and external fields leading to so called internal shock resistance. It is found that APE network of scientific interests belongs to independent clusters and occurs through rare or drastic events as in irreversible "preferential attachment processes", similar to those found in usual mechanics and thermodynamics phase transitions.