Structural characteristics and impact factors of international scientific research collaboration networks in open-access publications: An empirical analysis based on PLoS ONE - Wei Quan, Mingkun Wei, 2026

Abstract:  This study aims to empirically examine how international scientific research collaboration networks influence the impact disparities of open-access (OA) scholarly outputs, using PLoS ONE publications as a case study. Through a comparative analysis of the structural characteristics of international collaboration networks, we apply the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) to quantify variations in OA impact. Our findings indicate that the diffusion structure of international scientific collaboration exhibits high robustness and accessibility, serving as a model for effective OA dissemination. Although network density has increased over time, opportunities for further enhancement remain. Node centrality varies considerably across the network, with evidence of small-group clustering effects. Importantly, the structural attributes of collaboration networks – such as scale, depth, intensity, efficiency, and near-centrality – are found to mitigate OA impact disparities by promoting more equitable knowledge diffusion. In contrast, citation-based and social media-based metrics tend to amplify these disparities, as they disproportionately benefit nodes with higher connectivity or visibility within the network.