As the scientific literature library grows there grows an increasing need to evaluate the value and impact of published research. This has even become a field of study termed sciencetometrics.

Those familiar with research may know of journal impact factors Science Citation Index. To those unfamiliar, they are basically rankings of science journals based on how often the research articles published in those journals are cited in other research articles.

Around the time these measures were created, the early 1960s, was the same time that Thomas Kuhn introduced the idea of paradigm shifts especially in science. This further encouraged the study of networks of scientific literature, network scientometrics, and the potential applications.

Reference

Prabhakaran, T., Lathabai, H.H., George, S. et al. Towards prediction of paradigm shifts from scientific literature. Scientometrics 117, 1611–1644 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2931-3

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