eprintid: 2385
rev_number: 18
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/00/23/85
datestamp: 2014-12-02 15:33:39
lastmod: 2014-12-18 13:56:05
status_changed: 2014-12-02 15:33:39
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Mazloumian, Amin
creators_name: Eom, Young-Ho
creators_name: Helbing, Dirk
creators_name: Lozano, Sergi
creators_name: Fortunato, Santo
creators_id: 
creators_id: youngho.eom@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: How citation boosts promote scientific paradigm shifts and Nobel Prizes
ispublished: pub
subjects: HA
subjects: QC
subjects: Z665
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: public
abstract: Nobel Prizes are commonly seen to be among the most prestigious achievements of our times. Based on mining several million citations, we quantitatively analyze the processes driving paradigm shifts in science. We find that groundbreaking discoveries of Nobel Prize Laureates and other famous scientists are not only acknowledged by many citations of their landmark papers. Surprisingly, they also boost the citation rates of their previous publications. Given that innovations must outcompete the rich-gets-richer effect for scientific citations, it turns out that they can make their way only through citation cascades. A quantitative analysis reveals how and why they happen. Science appears to behave like a self-organized critical system, in which citation cascades of all sizes occur, from continuous scientific progress all the way up to scientific revolutions, which change the way we see our world. Measuring the “boosting effect” of landmark papers, our analysis reveals how new ideas and new players can make their way and finally triumph in a world dominated by established paradigms. The underlying “boost factor” is also useful to discover scientific breakthroughs and talents much earlier than through classical citation analysis, which by now has become a widespread method to measure scientific excellence, influencing scientific careers and the distribution of research funds. Our findings reveal patterns of collective social behavior, which are also interesting from an attention economics perspective. Understanding the origin of scientific authority may therefore ultimately help to explain how social influence comes about and why the value of goods depends so strongly on the attention they attract.
date: 2011
date_type: published
publication: PloS One
volume: 6
number: 5
publisher: Public Library of Science
pagerange: e18975
id_number: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018975
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1932-6203
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018975
projects: A.M., S.L. and D.H. were partially supported by the Future and Emerging Technologies programme FP7-COSI-ICT of the European Commission through the project QLectives (grant no.: 231200).
projects: Y.-H. E. and S. F. gratefully acknowledge ICTeCollective, grant 238597 of the European Commission
citation:   Mazloumian, Amin and Eom, Young-Ho and Helbing, Dirk and Lozano, Sergi and Fortunato, Santo  How citation boosts promote scientific paradigm shifts and Nobel Prizes.  PloS One, 6 (5).  e18975.  ISSN 1932-6203      (2011)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2385/1/PloSOne_Eom_2011.pdf