Geography of scientific knowledge: A proximity approach

Abstract

Proximity among scientists in social, cognitive, and physical dimensions promotes the sharing of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge helps scientists to understand the credibility of papers they read and to use the results in subsequent research. Hence, given the proximity among scientists in social, cognitive, and physical dimensions, one can predict patterns of diffusion in science. However, for controversial knowledge claims to become replicated, one expects the proximity between scientists itself to change as like-minded scientists relocate and create new coalitions. Proximity can thus be used as a unifying concept for the study of scientific knowledge diffusion as well as for the analysis of mobility of scientists.