Delayed Recognition; the Co-citation Perspective

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phenomenon of delayed recognition in scientific publications, focusing on co-citations, by analyzing a large dataset to identify and classify cases of delayed co-citation recognition.

Contribution

It introduces a large-scale analysis of delayed co-citations, providing a classification framework and exploring the underlying reasons for delayed recognition.

Findings

Identified 1,196 cases of delayed co-citations from over 940 million pairs

Classified delayed co-citations based on amplitude, citation rate, and discipline

Discussed alternative methods for detecting delayed recognition

Abstract

A Sleeping Beauty is a publication that is apparently unrecognized for some period of time before experiencing sudden recognition by citation. Various reasons, including resistance to new ideas, have been attributed to such delayed recognition. We examine this phenomenon in the special case of co-citations, which represent new ideas generated through the combination of existing ones. Using relatively stringent selection criteria derived from the work of others, we analyze a very large dataset of over 940 million unique co-cited article pairs, and identified 1,196 cases of delayed co-citations. We further classify these 1,196 cases with respect to amplitude, rate of citation, and disciplinary origin and discuss alternative approaches towards identifying such instances.