September 10, 2026

Welcome to PLOS Complex Systems

Image credit: PLOS

Interested in joining the board?

PLOS Complex Systems is looking for exceptional editors to join our team.

Apply

09/02/2026

research article

Topology-aware GNNs under structural perturbations: Empirical robustness across domains

The authors study how graph neural networks behave when some edges in a graph are missing or altered. These models are widely used to classify molecules, proteins, and social networks, but their predictions can change if the observed connections are incomplete or noisy. They combine two complementary views of a graph: a standard message-passing network, and a topological summary.

Image credit: Uriel SC

Topology-aware GNNs under structural perturbations: Empirical robustness across domains

08/28/2026

research article

Predicting missing links in COVID-19 infection networks

Real‑world infection networks are often incomplete since contact tracing cannot capture all infection events. As a result, many infected individuals appear as isolated cases with no recorded epidemiological links. Link prediction methods can be used to reconstruct these missing links, allowing for a more complete representation of the infection network. In this study, two approaches were evaluated for predicting missing links during the first four waves of COVID-19 in Cyprus.

Image credit: CDC

Predicting missing links in COVID-19 infection networks

08/26/2026

research article

Nationalization, network structure and partisan polarization

Partisan polarization in the United States is often blamed on the “nationalization” of politics, a trend where local issues are increasingly overshadowed by national partisan conflicts. However, it remains unclear exactly how the underlying structure of our social networks interacts with these overarching nationalized signals to sustain such deep societal divides.

Image credit: BoliviaIntellegente

Nationalization, network structure and partisan polarization

08/21/2026

research article

A network optimization framework for fuel break planning in wildfire-prone landscapes: Accounting for fuel break failures and wildlife conservation goals

A potential approach to mitigate wildfire spread risk is to segment the landscape with fuel breaks or similar areas with reduced fuel content. However, fragmenting the landscape may undermine other ecosystem services, such as the provision of wildlife migration routes.

Image credit: Yemshanov et al

A network optimization framework for fuel break planning in wildfire-prone landscapes: Accounting for fuel break failures and wildlife conservation goals

08/18/2026

opinion

Agentic AI: Vision and challenges

Despite significant progress, current agentic pipelines are still challenged by output instability, scalability gaps, and system integration issues. Addressing these limitations, this article presents a comprehensive conceptual framework unifying core AI functionality with implementation approaches across different system scales, including Agentic AI builds upon Large Language Models (LLMs).

Image credit: Gill et al

07/09/2026

research article

Persistence partitions of real and synthetic networks

Determining network structures that are neither local nor global is an area of research that has received considerable attention. The study of these intermediate structures has been primarily concerned with the detection of network communities but also includes the examination of network roles, core and peripheral structure, etc.

Image credit: Webb et al

07/02/2026

research article

Probability-turbulence divergence: A tunable allotaxonometric instrument for comparing heavy-tailed type-probability distributions

The authors introduce and explore ‘probability-turbulence divergence’, a tunable, straightforward, and interpretable instrument for comparing normalizable type-probability distributions.

Image credit: Dodds et al

06/30/2026

Review

Component systems: Do null models explain everything?

Component systems — ensembles of realizations built from a shared repertoire of modular parts — are ubiquitous in biological, ecological, technological, and socio-cultural domains.

Image credit: Lagomarsino et al

06/30/2026

research article

Deciphering and steering population-level response under spatial drug heterogeneity on microhabitat structures

Bacteria and cancer cells inhabit spatially heterogeneous environments, where migration shapes microhabitat structures critical for colonization and metastasis.

Image credit: Hu & Wood

06/30/2026

Opinion

Rethinking data sources for crisis management: How restricted social media access is reshaping current practices

Since their massive diffusion during the first decade of the 2000s, it became clear that social media could serve as a valuable source of real-time information about any topic, acting as crowdsourced...

Image credit: Nathan Domlao

06/29/2026

research article

Mosquito dispersal in context

Mosquito dispersal plays an important role in mosquito ecology and mosquito-borne pathogen transmission. While reaction-diffusion and patch-based models with simple flux assumptions for emigration have played a predominant role in modeling mosquito...

Image credit: Sanchez et al

Publish with PLOS

PLOS Complex Systems | ISSN: 2837-8830 (online)

Interested in joining the board?

PLOS Complex Systems is looking for exceptional editors to join our team.

Publish with PLOS

Connect with Us