Sleeping beauties in ophthalmology

Large-scale analysis of delayed recognition using sleeping beauty and the prince

Delayed recognition in which innovative discoveries are re-evaluated after a long period has significant implications for scientific progress. The quantitative method to detect delayed recognition is described as the pair of Sleeping Beauty (SB) and its Prince (PR), where SB refers to citation bursts and its PR triggers SB's awakeness calculated based on their citation history. This research provides the methods to extract valid and large SB-PR pairs from a comprehensive Scopus dataset and analyses how PR discovers SB. We prove that the proposed method can extract long-sleep and large-scale SB and its PR best covers the previous multi-disciplinary pairs, which enables to observe delayed recognition. Besides, we show that the high-impact SB-PR pairs extracted by the proposed method are more likely to be located in the same field. This indicates that a hidden SB that your research can awaken may exist closer than you think. On the other hand, although SB-PR pairs are fat-tailed in Beauty Coefficient and more likely to integrate separate fields compared to ordinary citations, it is not possible to predict which citation leads to awake SB using the rarity of citation. There is no easy way to limit the areas where SB-PR pairs occur or detect it early, suggesting that researchers and administrators need to focus on a variety of areas. This research provides comprehensive knowledge about the development of scientific findings that will be evaluated over time.

The 100 most cited papers on retinal detachment: a bibliographic perspective

The 100 most cited papers on retinal detachment (RD) were analysed using a bibliographic study. The bibliographic databases of the ISI Web of Knowledge were searched, limited to research articles published between 1965 and 2020 in peer-reviewed journals. The papers were ranked in order of number of citations since publication. Ninety of the 100 most cited papers on RD were published in 12 ophthalmology journals, with 74 of them published in American Journal of Ophthalmology (n=31), Ophthalmology (n=23), Archives of Ophthalmology (n=10) and Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (n=10); the remaining 10 papers were published in 8 journals from other fields of medical research. All papers in the top 100 were published in English. The 100 most cited papers on RD originated from 12 different countries, with the majority (72 papers) originating from the USA. The 100 identified papers represent a mix of clinical trials and animal/laboratory studies. This bibliographic study provides a unique perspective and insight into some of the most influential contributions in RD understanding and management over the last 55 years.

Sleeping Beauties of Coronavirus Research

A "Sleeping Beauty" (SB) in science is a metaphor for a scholarly publication that remains relatively unnoticed by the related communities for a long time; - the publication is "sleeping". However, suddenly due to the appearance of some phenomenon, such a "forgotten" publication may become a center of scientific attention; - the SB is "awakened". Currently, there are specific scientific areas for which sleeping beauties (SBs) are awakened. For example, as the world is experiencing the COVID-19 global pandemic (triggered by SARS-CoV-2), publications on coronaviruses appear to be awakened. Thus, one can raise questions of scientific interest: are these publications coronavirus related SBs? Moreover, while much literature exists on other coronaviruses, there seems to be no comprehensive investigation on COVID-19, - in particular in the context of SBs. Nowadays, such SB papers can be even used for sustaining literature reviews and/or scientific claims about COVID-19. In our study, in order to pinpoint pertinent SBs, we use the "beauty score" (B-score) measure. The Activity Index (AI) and the Relative Specialization Index (RSI) are also calculated to compare countries where such SBs appear. Results show that most of these SBs were published previously to the present epidemic time (triggered by SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), and are awakened in 2020. Besides outlining the most important SBs, we show from what countries and institutions they originate, and the most prolific author(s) of such SBs. The citation trend of SBs that have the highest B-score is also discussed.

Identifying the princes base on Altmetrics: An awakening mechanism of sleeping beauties from the perspective of social media

In science, sleeping beauties (SBs) denotes a special phenomenon of the diffusion of scientific knowledge based on citation trajectories, the awakening of which is also measured through changes in the citations index. However, the rapid advancement of social media has altered the mode of scientific communication and knowledge diffusion. This study aims to re-identify SBs and its Prince from the perspective of comprehensive indicators, which involves the analysis of Altmetrics indexes and Citation index, and investigate the awakening mechanism of A-SB to supplement the research on the awakening mechanism of SBs. By combining Ab index, we redefined the Prince, which makes A-SB receive high attention after a long Sleeping period and reflects the most prominent academic or social behavior that awakens and sustains the Awakening of A-SB. Then we conducted empirical research on the retrieved PLOS Biology collection and examined Prince after identifying the A-SB. The analysis and summary of the characteristics of the identified A-SB and Prince revealed the SBs’ awakening mechanism under the comprehensive trajectory based on Altmetrics from the three dimensions of the influence between the indicators, the overall evolution trajectory of A-SB, and literature bibliometric attributes. In the trajectory of Delayed Recognition stage of A-SB, we define the Dogsleep of SBs, which mirrors that the instability of the Sleeping of SBs will generate a specific negative impact on Prince of A-SB and Awakening intensity. Besides, the literature bibliometric attributes cannot reflect the tendency of users to read academic papers, which again proves that the traditional citation index cannot be neglected in the awakening mechanism of A-SB. Overall, this study demonstrates the addition of the Altmetrics indexes as a useful complement, illustrating the inheritance and connection between the SBs based on the comprehensive trajectory and the SBs based on the citation diffusion trajectory.

Study on the research evolution of Nobel laureates 2018 based on self-citation network

Purpose

Science is a continuum of experiences consisting of authors and their publications, and the authors’ experience is an integral part of their work that gets reflected through self-citations. Thus, self-citations can be employed in measuring the relevance between publications and tracking the evolution of research. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the bibliographic data obtained from Scopus, this study constructs and visualizes the self-citation networks of ten Nobel laureates 2018, in the fields of Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economic Science, to demonstrate the evolving process of each laureate’s research across his or her scholarly career.

Findings

Statistics indicate that prominent scientists, such as Nobel laureates, have also frequently cited their own publications. However, their self-cited rates are quite low. Self-citations constitute an indispensable part of the citation system but contribute little to authors’ scientific impact, regardless of artificial self-citations. Self-citation networks present a trajectory that shows the evolving process of research across a scientist’s long-term scholarly career. There are obvious differences in self-citation patterns and network structures of different laureates without a disciplinary difference observed. The structures of self-citation networks are significantly influenced by laureates’ productivity. In addition, it is laureates’ own research patterns and citation habits that lead to the diversified patterns and structures of self-citation networks.

Research limitations/implications

Only scientific achievements presented in the form of publications are investigated and other kinds of scientific output, such as patents, are not included. Moreover, this approach is fit for scientists who have had a longer career and higher productivity.

Originality/value

This study proves the feasibility and effectiveness of self-citation analysis as a new way to examine research evolution.

Where are the sleeping beauties and princes in educational technology journals?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an affective computing-based method of identifying sleeping beauties and their princes in five educational technology journals.

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops an information technology-based methodology to analyze sleeping beauties in the field of educational technology. The authors seek to determine the characteristics of studies which trigger the awakening of sleeping beauties (called “princes”). The keywords and Hirsch index (H-index) are used as two essential analysis indicators.

Findings

Between 2000 and 2015, these five journals included 7,864 articles with a total of 77,700 citations and 24,312 keywords. This study identified articles as being in deep sleep (75.7 percent), less deep sleep (14.7 percent), and awakening (5.5 percent) states. According to the analytical results, 431 of 7,864 articles are qualified as “sleeping beauties.” Of the 431 sleeping beauties identified, 232 articles were awakened by trend princes, while 286 were awakened by H-index princes. A total of 128 sleeping beauties were awakened by both prince types. Besides, impact factors (IFs) of journals do not have a significant effect on the number of sleeping articles.

Research limitations/implications

There are two main research limitations in this study. The first one is the amount of target journals. Only five well-known educational technology journals are analyzed in this research. There may be more valuable sleeping publications in other journals not been found. The second limitation is that the authors merely pick up the lead author of citing papers as the indicator to determine the H-index prince. The contributions of the rest of authors are not taken are not taken into consideration. These limitations should be further studied.

Originality/value

To the knowledge, this study is the first one reporting the identification of sleeping beauty and princes in educational technology field. Furthermore, the authors devise an informational method to determine sleeping publications, sleeping beauty, and princes. A systematic analysis of five well-known journals in the field of educational technology field confirms the existence of “sleeping beauties.” It is reported that improvements to a journal’s IF are positively correlated to increased numbers of sleeping beauties being awakened. To reduce the number of such articles, or to reduce the overall sleeping duration, journal editors should not only seek to raise the journal’s IF, but also strategically select keywords for maximum visibility, and promote articles to high H-index authors.

A Bibliometric Framework for Identifying “Princes” Who Wake up the “Sleeping Beauty” in Challenge-type Scientific Discoveries

Purpose

This paper develops and validates a bibliometric framework for identifying the “princes” (PR) who wake up the “sleeping beauty” (SB) in challenge-type scientific discoveries, so as to figure out the awakening mechanisms, and promote potentially valuable but not readily accepted innovative research. (A PR is a research study.)

Design/methodology/approach

We propose that PR candidates must meet the following four criteria: (1) be published near the time when the SB began to attract a lot of citations; (2) be highly cited papers themselves; (3) receive a substantial number of co-citations with the SB; and (4) within the challenge-type discoveries which contradict established theories, the “pulling effect” of the PR on the SB must be strong. We test the usefulness of the bibliometric framework through a case study of a key publication by the 2014 chemistry Nobel laureate Stefan W. Hell, who negated Ernst Abbe’s diffraction limit theory, one of the most prominent paradigms in the natural sciences.

Findings

The first-ranked candidate PR article identified by the bibliometric framework is in line with historical facts. An SB may need one or more PRs and even “retinues” to be “awakened.” Documents with potential awakening functionality tend to be published in prestigious multidisciplinary journals with higher impact and wider scope than the journals publishing SBs.

Research limitations

The above framework is only applicable to transformative innovations, and the conclusions are drawn from the analysis of one typical SB and her awakening process. Therefore the generality of our work might be limited.

Practical implications

Publications belonging to so-called transformative research, even when less frequently cited, should be given special attention as early as possible, because they may suddenly attract many citations after a period of sleep, as reflected in our case study.

Originality/value

The definition of PR(s) as the first paper(s) that cited the SB article (selfciting excluded) has its limitations. Instead, the SB-PR co-citations should be given priority in current environment of scholarly communication. Since the “premature” or “transformative” breakthroughs in the challenge-type SB documents are either beyond the current knowledge domain, or violate established paradigms, people’s psychological distance from the SB is larger than that from the PR, which explains why the annual citations of the PR are usually higher than those of the SB, especially prior to or during the SB’s citation boom period.

Exploring an Unknown Territory: "Sleeping Beauties" in the Nursing Research Literature

BACKGROUND

Sleeping Beauties (SBs) are publications that are scarcely cited in the years immediately following publication but then suddenly become highly cited later. Such publications have unique citation patterns and can reveal important developments in the field in which they appear.

OBJECTIVES

No holistic analysis of nursing SBs has been done yet. The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the SB phenomenon in the nursing research literature.

METHOD

The corpus for the nursing SB identification was harvested from the Web of Science Core Collection (Thomas Reuters) for the period 1934-2015. Citation histories of 212,239 publications were screened. From those, 3,209 publications with more than 100 citations were selected for analysis. We used our own software and applied the van Raan (2004) and Baumgartner (2010) criteria for SBs-a 5-year sleeping period with at most 10 citations during that time, an average of at least five citations per year after the first 10 years, with at least 100 citations in total. The knowledge context for SBs was determined using citing papers. All citing papers were analyzed with the help of VOSviewer software.

RESULTS

Nine publications were identified as SBs (prevalence of 0.004%). The length of sleep duration ranged from 5 to 10 years (M = 6.8, SD = 2.0), depth of sleep ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 citations (M = 0.6, SD = 0.2), and awake intensity ranged from 6.4 to 15.0 citations (M = 11.0, SD = 3.8). The average number of citations to SBs was 229. Most nursing SBs were produced in the United States (n = 8) from top institutions in journals with high-impact factors. Nursing SBs covered topics including resilience, sampling in qualitative research, metasynthesis, postoperative pain in children, dementia rating scales, care of patients with Alzheimer's disease, nursing theory related to fatigue mechanisms in cancer patients, and family participation during resuscitation. Nursing SBs were cited by authors from a large number of institutions and countries; the number of publications citing nursing SBs is growing exponentially and showing increasing and global interest in the research presented in them.

DISCUSSION

This study demonstrated that SBs in nursing are similar to other scientific disciplines. Existence of SBs suggests that nursing knowledge accumulation is supported by research and professional processes similar to those that emerged in other academic disciplines.

Citation classics published in Knowledge Management journals. Part II: studying research trends and discovering the Google Scholar Effect

Purpose

– The purpose of this study was to discover growing, stable and declining knowledge management (KM) research trends.

Design/methodology/approach

– Citations to 100 KM citation classics as identified by Serenko and Dumay (2015) were collected and analyzed for growing, stable and declining research trends.

Findings

– This research has two findings that were not theoretically expected. First, a majority of KM citation classics exhibit a bimodal citation distribution peak. Second, there are a growing number of citations for all research topics. These unexpected findings warranted further theoretical elaboration and empirical investigation. The analysis of erroneous citations and a five-year citation trend (2009 – 2013) reveals that the continuously growing volume of citations may result from what the authors call the Google Scholar Effect.

Research limitations/implications

– The results from this study open up two significant research opportunities. First, more research is needed to understand the impact Google Scholar is having on domains beyond KM. Second, more comprehensive research on the impact of erroneous citations is required because these have the most potential for damaging academic discourse and reputation.

Practical implications

– Researchers need to be aware of how technology is changing their profession and their citation behavior because of the pressure from the contemporary “publish or perish” environment, which prevents research from being state-of-the-art. Similarly, KM reviewers and editors need to be more aware of the pressure and prevalence of mis-citations and take action to raise awareness and to prevent mis-citations.

Originality/value

– This study is important from a scientometric research perspective as part of a growing research field using Google Scholar to measure the impact and power it has in influencing what gets cited and by whom.