Abstract: 【Purpose/significance】Studying the process of knowledge diffusion among scientific literature from a micro-level is of great significance for understanding the construction of scientific knowledge deeply.【Method/process】To use‘meme’as a concrete charac⁃terization of knowledge units in the literature, this paper studies papers of‘ontology’. We discussed the process of knowledge innova⁃tion and diffusion from three levels — meme, literature, and subjects.【Result/conclusion】The study found that the old memes show a larger gap in their propagate capacity, and the newly generated knowledge memes are“less but refined”; meme content and meme spreading capacity are significantly different among the literature; among the core subjects related to‘ontology’, there are two groups with different meme diffusion characteristics — one centered on Computer Science, the other centered on Biotechnology & Applied Mi⁃
crobiology.【Innovation/limitation】This paper changes the perspective of observing knowledge diffusion down to meme, and traces the process of knowledge diffusion as well as the construction of knowledge system from a more precise micro-level. However, the current research has not involved the innovation and diffusion of invisible memes, such as grammar and structure of the literature.