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1. Conference Paper2026Open Access

   Operationalising journals' communication functions through citation patterns and local dimensions(opens in a new tab)

   

   Di Césare, Victoria; Robinson-García, Nicolás; Costas, Rodrigo

   This preliminary study operationalises the knowledge bridging and gap-filling communication functions of scientific journals, originally proposed by Chavarro et al. (2017). Considering their theoretical definitions, we link these functions to our local research framework (Di Césare & Robinson-Garcia, 2026) through the producers and recipients dimensions, and measure them using local or global references and citations drawn from OpenAlex articles. We aim to empirically identify knowledge bridging and gap-filling journals, both within and outside the mainstream. The results suggest that the vast majority of these journals are non-mainstream. The thematic profiles of their references and citations validate our geographical operationalisations. Gap-filling journals belong predominantly to the non-mainstream local Social Sciences, whereas in the non-mainstream knowledge bridging journals, the Health Sciences emerge. These domain-level findings support the journals' theoretical functions of serving, respectively, as venues for the publication of knowledge overlooked by the mainstream, and as bridges between mainstream knowledge and local communities.

   DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22656966MainstreamCitationThematic mapSociology of scientific knowledge
2. Conference Paper2026Open Access

   Cognitive Proximity in a Hierarchical World: From Local Collaboration to Limited Global Brokerage(opens in a new tab)

   

   Borges, Luís; Mazoni, Alysson

   This paper examines the relative importance of cognitive proximity and geographical distance in shaping scientific collaboration, using Brazil as a large-scale empirical case in the Global South. Based on OpenAlex data (2010–2024), we estimate a gravity model showing that, although geographical distance negatively affects collaboration, cognitive proximity is a stronger predictor of scientific interaction. To complement this analysis, we examine the structure of international collaboration among the 23 countries with the highest number of publications. The results reveal persistent hierarchical patterns, with intermediation concentrated in a few dominant hubs. While countries such as Brazil have expanded their scientific output and international collaboration, their brokerage capacity remains limited. These findings suggest a pattern of 'concentrated deconcentration', in which increasing cognitive alignment facilitates collaboration over longer distances and scientific production becomes more geographically distributed, while brokerage capacity and structural influence remain concentrated in a limited set of countries.

   DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22656550CognitionIntermediationGeographical distanceSocially distributed cognition