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Thoughts on uncitedness: Nobel laureates and Fields medalists as case studies

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  • Leo Egghe
  • Raf Guns
  • Ronald Rousseau

Abstract

Contrary to what one might expect, Nobel laureates and Fields medalists have a rather large fraction (10% or more) of uncited publications. This is the case for (in total) 75 examined researchers from the fields of mathematics (Fields medalists), physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine (Nobel laureates). We study several indicators for these researchers, including the h‐index, total number of publications, average number of citations per publication, the number (and fraction) of uncited publications, and their interrelations. The most remarkable result is a positive correlation between the h‐index and the number of uncited articles. We also present a Lotkaian model, which partially explains the empirically found regularities.

Suggested Citation

  • Leo Egghe & Raf Guns & Ronald Rousseau, 2011. "Thoughts on uncitedness: Nobel laureates and Fields medalists as case studies," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(8), pages 1637-1644, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:62:y:2011:i:8:p:1637-1644
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.21557
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jianhua Hou & Jiantao Ye, 2020. "Are uncited papers necessarily all nonimpact papers? A quantitative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(2), pages 1631-1662, August.
    2. Zhao, Star X. & Tan, Alice M. & Yu, Shuang & Xu, Xin, 2018. "Analyzing the research funding in physics: The perspective of production and collaboration at institution level," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 508(C), pages 662-674.
    3. Jianhua Hou & Hao Li & Yang Zhang, 2023. "Altmetrics-based sleeping beauties: necessity or just a supplement?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5477-5506, October.
    4. Liang, Liming & Zhong, Zhen & Rousseau, Ronald, 2015. "Uncited papers, uncited authors and uncited topics: A case study in library and information science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 50-58.
    5. Katchanov, Yurij L. & Markova, Yulia V. & Shmatko, Natalia A., 2023. "Uncited papers in the structure of scientific communication," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    6. Ronald Rousseau & Xiaojun Hu, 2018. "Under-cited influential work by Eugene Garfield," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 651-657, February.
    7. Li, Jiang & Shi, Dongbo & Zhao, Star X. & Ye, Fred Y., 2014. "A study of the “heartbeat spectra” for “sleeping beauties”," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 493-502.
    8. Lucy Amez, 2012. "Citation measures at the micro level: Influence of publication age, field, and uncitedness," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(7), pages 1459-1465, July.
    9. Elisabeth Maria Schlagberger & Lutz Bornmann & Johann Bauer, 2016. "At what institutions did Nobel laureates do their prize-winning work? An analysis of biographical information on Nobel laureates from 1994 to 2014," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 723-767, November.
    10. Hou, Jianhua & Yang, Xiucai, 2020. "Social media-based sleeping beauties: Defining, identifying and features," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    11. Bertoli-Barsotti, Lucio & Lando, Tommaso, 2015. "On a formula for the h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 762-776.
    12. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang, 2019. "Patent sleeping beauties: evolutionary trajectories and identification methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 187-215, July.
    13. Helena H. Zhang & Fred Y. Ye, 2020. "Identifying ‘associated-sleeping-beauties’ in ‘swan-groups’ based on small qualified datasets of physics and economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(3), pages 1525-1537, March.
    14. Egghe, Leo & Rousseau, Ronald, 2023. "Global informetric impact: A description and definition using bundles," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    15. Jeppe Nicolaisen & Tove Faber Frandsen, 2019. "Zero impact: a large-scale study of uncitedness," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 1227-1254, May.
    16. Shaibu Mohammed & Anthony Morgan & Emmanuel Nyantakyi, 2020. "On the influence of uncited publications on a researcher’s h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(3), pages 1791-1799, March.
    17. Hu, Zewen & Wu, Yishan, 2014. "Regularity in the time-dependent distribution of the percentage of never-cited papers: An empirical pilot study based on the six journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 136-146.
    18. Zewen Hu & Yishan Wu & Jianjun Sun, 2018. "A quantitative analysis of determinants of non-citation using a panel data model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 843-861, August.
    19. Jiang Li & Fred Y. Ye, 2012. "The phenomenon of all-elements-sleeping-beauties in scientific literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(3), pages 795-799, September.
    20. Quentin L. Burrell, 2014. "The individual author’s publication–citation process: theory and practice," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 725-742, January.
    21. Leo Egghe & Ronald Rousseau, 2012. "Theory and practice of the shifted Lotka function," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(1), pages 295-301, April.
    22. Pablo Dorta-González & Rafael Suárez-Vega & María Isabel Dorta-González, 2020. "Open access effect on uncitedness: a large-scale study controlling by discipline, source type and visibility," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2619-2644, September.
    23. Quentin L. Burrell, 2012. "Alternative thoughts on uncitedness," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(7), pages 1466-1470, July.
    24. Agnieszka Geras & Grzegorz Siudem & Marek Gagolewski, 2022. "Time to vote: Temporal clustering of user activity on Stack Overflow," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(12), pages 1681-1691, December.
    25. Shaibu Mohammed & Emmanuel K. Nyantakyi & Anthony Morgan & Prosper Anumah & Justice Sarkodie-kyeremeh, 2021. "Use of relative extra citation counts and uncited publications to enhance the discriminatory power of the h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 181-199, January.

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