Paper citations provide traceable and measurable footprints for tracking knowledge dissemination. Employing Web of Science database, we aim to trace potential disseminators of authors who have acquired specific knowledge (e.g., a theory, a method, and an idea) to apply to their own research. Using our proposed knowledge tracing framework and the case (Geodetector), we identified 118 stochastic and 130 deterministic dissemination relationships among Geodetector authors, from which the stochastic dissemination probabilities and the spatiotemporal deterministic relationship strengths were also calculated. Among these deterministic dissemination chains, the most continuous and closest co-authorship was domestic cross-institutional collaboration (Rt=21.55), followed by inter-laboratory collaboration within the institution (Rt=8), transnational collaboration (Rt=5), and co-laboratory collaboration (Rt=4.08). The study showed that the time factor had more significant impact on knowledge diffusion compared to the geographical distance between scholars, and that the time when original knowledge was first published had a greater impact than the time when it was adopted. The knowledge dissemination network constructed in this paper reflects the collaboration relationships among scholars in related fields to a certain extent (explanatory power = 35%), and analyzing their different selections of specific knowledge can help related organizations and institutions break collaboration barriers and research bottlenecks.

Yuting Liang
Utrecht University

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ID Abstract: 943