  In order to capture the effects of social ties in knowledge diffusion, this
paper examines the publication network that emerges from the collaboration of
researchers, using citation information as means to estimate knowledge flow.
For this purpose, we analyzed the papers published in the PLOS ONE journal
finding strong evidence to support that the closer two authors are in the
co-authorship network, the larger the probability that knowledge flow will
occur between them. Moreover, we also found that when it comes to knowledge
diffusion, strong co-authorship proximity is more determinant than geographic
proximity.
