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Selecting key opinion leaders under practical challenges

Zachary P. Neal et al.

Network Science2026https://doi.org/10.1017/nws.2026.10022article
AJG 1
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

When undertaking a community intervention, interventionists frequently recruit the help of community members who serve as key opinion leaders (KOLs). However, selecting a team of KOLs can be challenging because the evaluation of potential teams must balance considerations of members’ availability and diversity, as well as the team’s breadth of network coverage and cost of recruitment. This paper has two goals: to review the practical challenges that arise in the selection of KOLs for community interventions, and to facilitate the selection of KOLs when some of these practical challenges are present by introducing and demonstrating the KOLaide R package. We conclude by discussing future directions for facilitating the selection of KOLs in community intervention contexts.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/nws.2026.10022

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@article{zachary2026,
  title        = {{Selecting key opinion leaders under practical challenges}},
  author       = {Zachary P. Neal et al.},
  journal      = {Network Science},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/nws.2026.10022},
}

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Selecting key opinion leaders under practical challenges

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.