A memory-theoretic account of citation propagation.
R Soc Open Sci
; 11(5): 231521, 2024 May.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39076797
ABSTRACT
Despite the common assumption that citations are indicative of an article's scientific merit, increasing evidence indicates that citation counts are largely driven by variables unrelated to quality. In this article, we treat people's decisions of what to cite as an instance of memory retrieval and show that observed citation patterns are well accounted for by a model of memory. The proposed exposure model anticipates that small alterations in factors that affect people's ability to retrieve to-be-cited articles from memory early in their life cycle are magnified over time and can lead to the emergence of highly cited papers. This effect occurs even when there is no variation in the starting point exposure probabilities (i.e. when assuming a level playing field where all articles are treated equally and of equal 'quality'), and is exacerbated by natural variation in retrievability of articles due to encoding. We discuss the implications of the model within the context of research evaluation and hiring, tenure and promotion decisions.
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1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article