Files and links (1)
SubmittedOpen Access (License Unspecified), Open
Journal article
Citation cascade and the evolution of topic relevance
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v 72(1), pp 110-127
Jan 2021
Abstract
Citation analysis, as a tool for quantitative studies of science, has long emphasized direct citation relations, leaving indirect or high‐order citations overlooked. However, a series of early and recent studies demonstrate the existence of indirect and continuous citation impact across generations. Adding to the literature on high‐order citations, we introduce the concept of a citation cascade: the constitution of a series of subsequent citing events initiated by a certain publication. We investigate this citation structure by analyzing more than 450,000 articles and over 6 million citation relations. We show that citation impact exists not only within the three generations documented in prior research but also in much further generations. Still, our experimental results indicate that two to four generations are generally adequate to trace a work's scientific impact. We also explore specific structural properties—such as depth, width, structural virality, and size—which account for differences among individual citation cascades. Finally, we find evidence that it is more important for a scientific work to inspire trans‐domain (or indirectly related domain) works than to receive only intradomain recognition in order to achieve high impact. Our methods and findings can serve as a new tool for scientific evaluation and the modeling of scientific history.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Citation cascade and the evolution of topic relevance
- Creators
- Chao Min - Nanjing UniversityQingyu Chen - The University of MelbourneErjia Yan - Drexel UniversityYi Bu - Indiana UniversityJianjun Sun - Nanjing University
- Publication Details
- Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v 72(1), pp 110-127
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Hoboken, USA
- Number of pages
- 18
- Grant note
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (71874077; 71904081) Jiangsu Province Social Sciences Foundation (18TQC005) Chinese Education Department Research Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (19YJC870017)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000536046600001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85085558654
- Other Identifier
- 991014976885004721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Computer Science, Information Systems
- Information Science & Library Science