Laboratories are vital hubs for fostering scientific innovation and experimental research among university students. However, they face growing safety management challenges and declining emergency response efficiency due to hazardous experiments and aging systems, which hinder both emergency prevention and accident response in university laboratories. This study aims to enhance academic laboratories’ emergency management capabilities and their operational effectiveness. It also analyzes an accident case study at a university laboratory using the social network analysis method and builds an emergency management cooperation network model between departments.

First, this study analyzes the effectiveness of emergency collaboration networks through a literature review to demonstrate their general applicability. Then, based on accident reports on the authoritative information platform for almost a month, an “organization-to-organization” relationship matrix was established and used as a basis for creating an emergency coordination network. Subsequently, relevant parameters of the emergency collaboration network in higher education laboratories were determined by a systematic analysis of a university laboratory accident case, including network density, central tendency, cohesion, and average distance. Using this network, this study refers to centrality and structural hole theories as the basis for the influence of each node in the university laboratories’ emergency coordination network and reveals the structural characteristics and interactions between the network nodes. Three optimization strategies were developed based on the results: creating cross-departmental resource coordination mechanisms, strengthening the coordinating functions of central nodes, and building a multi-department emergency collaboration network model for university laboratories. These strategies aim to enhance emergency management efficiency and safety in university laboratories.

Network data analysis revealed an overall network density of 0.54 and a central potential of 41.32%, indicating good synergy but room for optimization. Data analysis, using centrality and structural hole theories, indicates that local governments and emergency management departments should be identified as core entities in university laboratory emergency management systems. Using their high network centrality and resource allocation capabilities, these departments must actively develop laboratory safety policies. University functional departments should serve as information exchange platforms because of their cross-departmental coordination capabilities. Specialized functional departments (such as fire brigades) are at non-core nodes of the emergency system with limited information control but can compensate for information gaps in the emergency coordination network through functional division and collaboration.

This study introduces an emergency collaborative network system and applies it to analyze a university laboratory accident. By establishing the laboratory’s emergency network and conducting data calculations and analyses, we identify critical nodes in the emergency management coordination network, addressing the aging issues of the current system. This method extends social network analysis to university laboratory safety management and offers insights into efficient university emergency response.

With the continuous progress of higher education institutions in the field of experimental teaching and scientific research in recent years, the scale and complexity of university laboratories have grown significantly, a trend that has led directly to the diversification of the types of hazardous sources and a sharp increase in the difficulty of safety management. The regulation of individual safety psychology in the laboratory is one of the important parts of the safety management module. However, in previous research on laboratory safety management, research that addresses the psychology of individual safety is lacking. To fill this gap and improve the safety management of laboratories in universities, a psychological structural model for analyzing the psychology of safety is constructed with the help of psychological latent variables and laboratory environmental factors.

First, through an extensive literature review, a range of factors that may influence the psychology of individual safety in laboratories, including but not limited to the powertrain, braking system, environment, mental toughness, and fatigue, were identified. Then, the logical relationships between constituent factors and individual safety psychology were investigated. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method was employed to develop a five-tier progressive psychological structure model tailored to analyze safety psychology in university laboratories, based on which the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) method was further utilized to quantitatively assess the driving force and dependence of each factor, which reveals the relative importance of different factors in the system. Based on the results of the aforementioned analyses, psychological methods, such as rational emotive therapy, were used to guide laboratory personnel to challenge and overcome irrational beliefs, establish a psychological intervention mechanism for laboratory personnel that includes the establishment of a trinity of safety education and training that integrates psychological safety education, an emotional support network, and a mental health test, and provide decision-making support for psychological intervention for laboratory personnel in colleges and universities for them to establish a more rational and positive safety cognitive and behavioral patterns. Intervention mechanisms include psychological and behavioral interventions.

After the analysis of the ISM–MICMAC model, the construction of regulations and responsibility system, safety education training, and psychological intervention are not only in the core role layer in the system of factors influencing the individual safety psychology in the laboratory but also have a high level of driving force, which has a greater impact on the level of laboratory safety management and individual safety psychology. Other factors also affect the psychology of individual safety in the laboratory at different levels.

By introducing psychological latent variables and other key factors in psychology, this study systematically analyzes the logical structure of the influence of individual safety psychology in college laboratories. Accordingly, it establishes a targeted psychological intervention mechanism that aims to optimize the relevant behaviors by regulating safety psychology to provide new perspectives and practical paths for the enhancement of the safety management level of college laboratories in China.

With increasing scientific research activities in university laboratories, the laboratory safety management system must be urgently optimized to address various laboratory accidents. Owing to the complexity of risk factors and difficulty in detecting safety hazards in university laboratories, analyzing factors influencing laboratory accidents plays a crucial role in preventing accidents. Based on the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method, this study examines the effects of different condition configurations on laboratory accidents to explore the complex causal relationship between laboratory accidents and various factors.

First, based on the “human–machine–environment–management,” a safety management system is constructed to analyze the factors influencing university laboratory accidents, and six causal conditions are extracted from the management system to investigate the condition configuration of the accident. Second, data regarding 30 typical accidents in Chinese universities are collected. According to the collected accident data, fuzzy assignment is attributed to the condition and result variables of each accident. Finally, the collected laboratory case data are analyzed using the fsQCA3.0 software, and the analysis results are processed according to the fsQCA handling method. Moreover, six configuration types affecting the severity of laboratory accident consequences are obtained.

The results of the study show the following: management condition deficiencies or instrument and equipment failures are the core conditions affecting the occurrence of accidents, and unsafe people’s behavior and accident handling often appear as the marginal conditions of accidents. The following rules were established based on the configuration analysis results: the lack of management conditions may not be the sole factor leading to accidents, but as a core condition, it will considerably impact the consequences of accidents; equipment accidents have complex path combinations; and human factors are typically present as marginal conditions in configuration, combined with other factors to form the causative path of laboratory accidents. Lastly, suggestions on laboratory safety management are proposed according to the rules displayed by configuration types.

Through the configuration analysis of accidents in university laboratories using the fsQCA method, six configuration types of accidents are obtained, three rules are summarized, and some suggestions for laboratory safety management are provided in this paper. This paper tries to deduce the causal relationship of multiple and concurrent laboratory accidents in Chinese universities from the configuration perspective. In addition, the proposed method introduces a new causal explanation mechanism for the occurrence of laboratory accidents and a new perspective for laboratory safety management.

University laboratories are prone to all kinds of emergencies due to the existence of many dangerous factors, so it is urgent to strengthen the ability of college laboratories to deal with emergencies. As a practical assessment method to test the feasibility and practicability of the laboratory emergency plan and to test and exercise the emergency response ability of the emergency response team, the emergency drill plays an important role in improving the laboratory's ability to respond to emergencies. Among them, the emergency drill script is an important basis for the implementation of emergency drills. Therefore, this paper proposes to utilize scenario construction technology to carry out emergency drill script design.

Firstly, this paper analyzed the connection between scenario construction method and emergency drill. Secondly, we investigated the current status of the application of scenario construction method at home and abroad, identified the explosion accident as the object of laboratory emergency drill design through literature research, and specified the laboratory emergency drill needs assessment framework as the reference for scenario construction. Finally, according to the framework, the scenario construction method was applied to realize the design of emergency drill scenario content, emergency drill organizational structure, emergency drill evolution process, and emergency drill script.

The main results of this paper are as follows: combined with the combing of previous exercises, experience summary, and actual case analysis, based on the scenario construction technology to comb and analyze the characteristics and matters in the evolution process and emergency response process of laboratory explosion accidents in universities. The specific content of the scenario planning conceptualization and construction design of the university laboratory explosion emergency drill is proposed. This paper clarifies the scenario tasks, the relevant person in charge, the emergency disposal process, and the measures involved in the drill. According to the content of the emergency plan and the functions of the member units, and combined with the actual practice of previous drills, sorting out and summarizing the organizational structure and division of labor of university laboratory emergency drills. Combined with the characteristics of the actual case, the evolution of the university laboratory explosion accident is specifically described, it is divided into 4 stages: accident occurrence, information communication, emergency response, and aftercare. Finally, according to the 4 stages of accident evolution, the tasks of each stage in the evolution process of university laboratory explosion accidents are sorted out, the distribution of duties of each department in the emergency response process is analyzed, and an emergency drill script for laboratory explosion accidents based on actual cases is generated. [Conclusion] By analyzing actual cases, scenario construction techniques are applied to guide the design of laboratory emergency drills. In this paper, the tasks of each stage are sorted out from the four stages of accident evolution, and the distribution of duties of each department in the emergency response process is analyzed. The laboratory emergency drill script provides emergency scenarios of laboratory explosion accidents, which can be used for actual simulation drills or virtual drills, and can be combined with different cases to form a library of laboratory emergency drill scripts, which provides support for laboratory emergency drills.