Quantifying the evolution of individual scientific impact
Abstract
Are there quantifiable patterns behind a successful scientific career? Sinatra et al. analyzed the publications of 2887 physicists, as well as data on scientists publishing in a variety of fields. When productivity (which is usually greatest early in the scientist's professional life) is accounted for, the paper with the greatest impact occurs randomly in a scientist's career. However, the process of generating a high-impact paper is not an entirely random one. The authors developed a quantitative model of impact, based on an element of randomness, productivity, and a factor Q that is particular to each scientist and remains constant during the scientist's career.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 04, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aaf5239
Entities
People
- Albert-László Barabási
- Chaoming Song
- Dashun Wang
- Pierre Deville
- Roberta Sinatra
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Central European University
- Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
- Harvard Medical School
- Northeastern University
- Northwestern University
- UCLouvain
- University of Miami