The effect of citation behaviour on knowledge diffusion and intellectual structure

Abstract

Citation behaviour is the source driver of scientific dynamics, and it is essential to understand its effect on knowledge diffusion and intellectual structure. This study explores the effect of citation behaviour on disciplinary knowledge diffusion and intellectual structure by comparing three types of citation behaviour trends, namely the high citation trend, medium citation trend, and low citation trend. The diffusion power, diffusion speed, and diffusion breadth were calculated to quantify knowledge diffusion. The properties of the global and local citation network structure were used to reflect the particular influences of citation behaviour on the scientific intellectual structure. The primary empirical results show that (a) the high citation behaviour trend could improve the knowledge diffusion speed for papers with a short citation history span. Additionally, the medium citation trend has the broadest diffusion breadth whereas the low citation behaviour trend might make the citation counts take off for papers with a long citation history span; (b) the high citation trend has a stronger influence and greater control over the intellectual structure, but this relationship is true only for papers with a short or normal citation history span. These findings could play important roles in scientific research evaluation and impact prediction.