Delayed Recognition in Science: Different Causes of Sleeping and Awakening of Discoveries

Nowadays, innovation and translational research concepts are commonly used in science policies. They often refer to the need to contribute to the diffusion of new scientific knowledge toward socio-economic impact. However, novelty is not exclusively related to discoveries: work can remain ignored for a long time, before being recognized (Cole S. 1970). This phenomenon of late recognition is gaining renewed interest with the scientometrics analysis of Sleeping Beauties, and their prevalence and importance in the history and sociology of science (Gorry & Ragouet, 2016). Delayed recognition has been well described in science since the pioneering observations of Garfield, and referred to today as sleeping beauties (SB). It is a phenomenon where papers do not achieve recognition in terms of citations until a few years after their original publication (Garfield 1989). The definition, introduced by Van Raan (2004), refers to an article that goes unnoticed ("sleep") for more than 10 years ("sleep" period), and then, almost suddenly receives many citations (the "awakening" period) by a ‘‘Prince'' (PR, another article), attracting a lot of attention from there on in terms of citations (the "Kiss of the Prince"). SB have been identified in numerous research fields such as biology, chemistry, medicine and physics. The present work aims to explore, through several case studies, the reasons for SB pattern of citations and what mechanisms are in play in the "awakening" by using scientometric, historical and sociological approaches in order to explain the resistance to knowledge diffusion.