The Impact of Knowledge Diversity on Scientific Output: Distinct Effects from Collective and Individual Perspectives

The Impact of Knowledge Diversity on Scientific Output: Distinct Effects from Collective and Individual Perspectives | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Impact of Knowledge Diversity on Scientific Output: Distinct Effects from Collective and Individual Perspectives Yuxin Han, Lin Zhang, Zhenyu Gou This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8382973/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Knowledge diversity plays a pivotal role in shaping research outputs in scientific collaboration. However, most previous studies measuring knowledge diversity at the article level implicitly treat collaboration members as a homogeneous whole, which can lead to aggregation bias. This study proposes a dual-perspective framework for measuring knowledge diversity in scientific collaboration, distinguishing between the individual perspective—each collaborator is treated separate individual—and the collective perspective—all collaborators are treated as an integrated entity. Using articles published in Nature between 2000 and 2020 as a test dataset, knowledge diversity is measured across three dimensions: variety, balance and disparity, and the impact of knowledge diversity on academic impact and disruption of output is examined. The results reveal divergent effects between individual and collective perspectives: individual knowledge variety and disparity enhance impact and disruption, whereas excessive collective variety and skewed balance undermine impact; collective disparity supports higher impact overall, but very high individual disparity may dampen disruption. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between the two perspectives of knowledge diversity and provide a refined lens for optimizing team composition and knowledge integration in scientific collaboration. Collaboration Knowledge diversity Scientific impact Disruption Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. The corresponding author (Lin Zhang) is Editor-in-Chief of Scientometrics. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8382973","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":573343119,"identity":"1fd34bc5-c9ae-4b8e-a366-e8a2cef61193","order_by":0,"name":"Yuxin Han","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuxin","middleName":"","lastName":"Han","suffix":""},{"id":573343126,"identity":"9b214dc9-e1ab-4ebd-aadc-0f8a4719c321","order_by":1,"name":"Lin Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACPmYGBmYQg42Zsf3HB4YDILYBXi1sMC187MwNkjOI0sIA1SLHz94gzUOUFnbew58Lau7YtTEzNhjbtt1JbGBv3ibBUHMHj8P4EoxnHHuWDNKSnNv2LLGB51iZBMOxZ3i08Bgk87AdTgZ6v+Fw7rbDiQ0SOWYSQDZeLYd5/oG1NDZbgrTIvyGoxbCZt+2wHVBLMzMj2BYeglqMmXn7DicAtbQx9v47bNzGk1ZskXAMtxZ+/jPGn3m+HbaX7z/+jOHHmcOy/eyHN974UINbCwwkNsDtBREJBDUwMNgToWYUjIJRMApGKgAAJUtNLWnFKEMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lin","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":573343127,"identity":"bf318432-c32e-47db-9b36-7746e34e01db","order_by":2,"name":"Zhenyu Gou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhenyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Gou","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-17 07:53:39","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8382973/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8382973/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":100372489,"identity":"768363df-b01e-475c-8393-de6c769d61dd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:12:30","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":721512,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheImpactofKnowledgeDiversityonScientificOutputDistinctEffectsfromCollectiveandIndividualPerspectives.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/81454fec817841956853ba5a.docx"},{"id":100262419,"identity":"1840c15a-9e82-4f9c-9150-027764cb5651","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-14 17:26:11","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5166,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"bef9594d1892452b90cee356d3332e41.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/ff471097f8b2eb5629343c2d.json"},{"id":100372469,"identity":"7ba4046e-ccd7-404a-9dcb-8c08fe361eb1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:12:26","extension":"xml","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":197700,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"bef9594d1892452b90cee356d3332e411enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/d3669e6b7ad6a87fdc01879a.xml"},{"id":100262416,"identity":"1e5c1ad4-247a-47e2-9249-c07633347bcd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-14 17:26:11","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":89537,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/2468e6ef1555d7e8b8d2f0c3.jpeg"},{"id":100372094,"identity":"e1584849-e5d6-46aa-bdb5-3e1e2efa6596","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:11:39","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":186579,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/884eb48521992d76986f588a.jpeg"},{"id":100372601,"identity":"8bd006ab-19a6-42d5-8d7b-3e822215ea6e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:12:44","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":186005,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/164e67785c8a95ddad18e1ec.png"},{"id":100262422,"identity":"8c478af1-4536-44c8-960f-61f1d02d8a2b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-14 17:26:11","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":244082,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/10a7cb254646ad9c482cc17b.png"},{"id":100372110,"identity":"06723745-5bfb-405b-aa60-70032f2ed962","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:11:41","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":17688,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/12b724e39f6b9890f9e7dfaf.png"},{"id":100372555,"identity":"3501fac4-b82c-405d-b69f-1ead34d37706","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:12:39","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":51721,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/ad4776ba0a57417d4b3227b0.png"},{"id":100372635,"identity":"60eb1dfc-8ef0-4867-ac89-71f115e3d5e9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 08:12:49","extension":"png","order_by":9,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":54674,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/ab9b449c937e8a0822425557.png"},{"id":100262426,"identity":"08280207-c00c-4537-b78d-f090c41b95df","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-14 17:26:11","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":78355,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/b99cdf22843559daf53d4f49.png"},{"id":100262428,"identity":"9e7e084e-c86b-4e04-b74b-07fd930bd578","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-14 17:26:11","extension":"xml","order_by":11,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":197388,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"bef9594d1892452b90cee356d3332e411structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/f966f4cfcada136422cef5c4.xml"},{"id":100262427,"identity":"bbf394b9-10ff-478f-b4fe-06edc517401d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-14 17:26:11","extension":"html","order_by":12,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":214882,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1/07608c6a0257e372d1d09500.html"},{"id":100383770,"identity":"5af09501-1230-4edb-b84e-80bf5397a5ba","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-16 10:48:19","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":949687,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheImpactofKnowledgeDiversityonScientificOutputDistinctEffectsfromCollectiveandIndividualPerspectives.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8382973/v1_covered_06b4117c-6b37-40ba-a506-0b376aaae432.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. The corresponding author (Lin Zhang) is Editor-in-Chief of Scientometrics.","formattedTitle":"The Impact of Knowledge Diversity on Scientific Output: Distinct Effects from Collective and Individual Perspectives","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Collaboration, Knowledge diversity, Scientific impact, Disruption","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8382973/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8382973/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eKnowledge diversity plays a pivotal role in shaping research outputs in scientific collaboration. However, most previous studies measuring knowledge diversity at the article level implicitly treat collaboration members as a homogeneous whole, which can lead to aggregation bias. This study proposes a dual-perspective framework for measuring knowledge diversity in scientific collaboration, distinguishing between the individual perspective\u0026mdash;each collaborator is treated separate individual\u0026mdash;and the collective perspective\u0026mdash;all collaborators are treated as an integrated entity. Using articles published in \u003cem\u003eNature\u003c/em\u003e between 2000 and 2020 as a test dataset, knowledge diversity is measured across three dimensions: variety, balance and disparity, and the impact of knowledge diversity on academic impact and disruption of output is examined. The results reveal divergent effects between individual and collective perspectives: individual knowledge variety and disparity enhance impact and disruption, whereas excessive collective variety and skewed balance undermine impact; collective disparity supports higher impact overall, but very high individual disparity may dampen disruption. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between the two perspectives of knowledge diversity and provide a refined lens for optimizing team composition and knowledge integration in scientific collaboration.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Impact of Knowledge Diversity on Scientific Output: Distinct Effects from Collective and Individual Perspectives","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-14 17:26:06","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8382973/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"897b61b4-c2da-44e0-9d62-b0acd1299fba","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 14th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-05T13:26:51+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-14 17:26:06","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8382973","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8382973","identity":"rs-8382973","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}