The main objective of this paper is to examine the effect of econo­mic distance on academic scientific collaboration in peripherical countries in Southern Europe (period 2006-2010). For this purpose, we use co-publications as an indicator of collaboration. Besides, we explore the effect of other proximity notions argued in the extant literature. Our results show that economic distance promotes academic scientific collaboration, supporting the centre-periphery hypothesis. It is also shown that geographic, cognitive, institutional and social proximity facilitates scientific collaboration, while the effect of organizational proximity is not clear.