Page 197 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

196 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

improve the theory itself. In the process of knowledge and information interaction of various
disciplines, the structural holes theory research has grown, and the academic innovation diffusion
process is well advanced.

4 Conclusions

A comprehensive study of the academic innovation diffusion process needs to analyze from
many angles. Specifically, the analysis dimensions should include the time dimension and the
disciplinary dimension. The levels of analysis should include: macro-level, which depicts the
whole picture of innovation diffusion; meso-level, which depicts the sub-disciplines or the sub-
periods, and the phased analysis; micro-level, which depicts critical paths and key nodes of
innovation diffusion. The analysis perspectives should include: the overall perspective, which
presents the innovation diffusion process in all subjects or in a special subject area, the disciplines
distribution of the innovation diffusion, and the knowledge diffusion mode among disciplines;
local perspective, which extracts part of the innovation diffusion network to analysis; individual
perspective, which extracts a vertex or arc to do the ego-network analysis.
The study on the diffusion process of the academic innovation requires a full consideration from
all of the above viewpoints, and the analysis from different perspectives are often fused together.
Taking the main path analysis as an example, this method analyzes the framework of knowledge
diffusion through the macro-level to the micro-level, and transfers the perspective among the
overall perspective, local perspective and individual perspective. The analysis includes both the
time dimension and the disciplinary dimension. Because of the complexity of the research, based
on the empirical research, this paper clarifies the relationship between research methods and
research angles, and sums up the general steps of the study on the academic innovation diffusion
process as follows:
1) Establishing a sequence network of the innovation diffusion. Vertexes in the network can
be literature, authors, and journals, etc. Different vertexes can lead to the study of the academic
innovation diffusion process for different subjects.
2) Studying the innovation diffusion curve. Measuring the diffusion rate and acceleration;
judging the success or failure of the diffusion based on the type of the curve; determining the
diffusion phase and inflection points; and predicting the diffusion trend. The research level
includes macro-level and meso-level, and the latter one focuses on the topics such as academic
innovation diffusion curve in a single subject.
3) Revealing the distribution of the innovation diffusion in different fields is studied. We can
measure the diffusion breadth and the diffusion delay in different disciplines.
4) Analyzing the innovation diffusion context. We can extract the main path and the main path
component of diffusion network, and identify the key vertexes and the critical path, and reveal
the alternate process of the re-innovation and the re-diffusion in the process of the innovation