Research on the structural features and influencing factors of the scientific exchange network of countries along "the belt and road"

"The Belt and Road" is an initiative proposed by China in recent years to cooperate and develop to build a community with a shared future for mankind. Analyzing the academic exchanges of countries along the "The Belt and Road" can provide a quantitative reference for future international scientific and technological exchanges, collaborative innovation development and related research. We carry out matrix construction and network structure analysis on the citation and cooperation of highly cited papers among countries along the "Belt and Road" included in China from 2013 to 2018 included in Web of Science Core Collection, and explore the current status of scientific exchanges in countries along "the Belt and Road". The Quadratic Assignment Procedure analysis method verifies the influence of five variables, including geographic proximity, differences in economic levels, scientific productivity, similarity of research content,and economic and trade cooperation, on scientific exchange networks. The research results show that the countries along the "the Belt and Road" have relatively close academic exchanges;Geographical proximity, similarity of research content, differences in economic level between countries, and differences in scientific productivity are significantly correlated with each other;the similarity of scientific and technological level and research content and the closeness of economic and trade cooperation have a positive effect on scientific exchanges as a whole.