Citation concept analysis (CCA) - A new form of citation analysis revealing the usefulness of concepts for other researchers illustrated by two exemplary case studies including classic books by Thomas S. Kuhn and Karl R. Popper

TL;DR

This paper introduces Citation Concept Analysis (CCA), a novel method for quantifying the impact of specific concepts within scientific texts by analyzing citation contexts, demonstrated through case studies of Kuhn and Popper.

Contribution

The paper presents a new citation analysis approach that measures concept influence in scientific literature, providing insights into the cognitive impact of ideas across disciplines.

Findings

Kuhn's 'paradigm' is the most cited concept, accounting for over 80% of Kuhn-related citations.

Falsification is the most frequently cited concept from Popper's works.

The impact of the 'paradigm' concept is consistent across disciplines and over time.

Abstract

In recent years, the full text of papers are increasingly available electronically which opens up the possibility of quantitatively investigating citation contexts in more detail. In this study, we introduce a new form of citation analysis, which we call citation concept analysis (CCA). CCA is intended to reveal the cognitive impact certain concepts -- published in a document -- have on the citing authors. It counts the number of times the concepts are mentioned (cited) in the citation context of citing publications. We demonstrate the method using three classical examples: (1) The structure of scientific revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, (2) The logic of scientific discovery - Logik der Forschung: Zur Erkenntnistheorie der modernen Naturwissenschaft in German -, and (3) Conjectures and refutations: the growth of scientific knowledge by Karl R. Popper. It is not surprising -- as our results show -- that Kuhn's "paradigm" concept has had a significant impact. What is surprising is that it has had such a disproportionately larger impact than Kuhn's other concepts, e.g., "scientific revolution". The paradigm concept accounts for over 80% of the concept-related citations to Kuhn's work, and its impact is resilient across all disciplines and over time. With respect to Popper, "falsification" is the most used concept derived from his books. Falsification, after all, is the cornerstone of Popper's critical rationalism.