引文波峰的量化与分布探究

On the Quantification and Distribution of Citation Peaks

引文是科学知识的重要连接,引文波峰反映了引文扩散过程中最具影响力的阶段。本文希望借助引文波峰分布情况来深入了解科学引文的动态扩散过程。首先明确引文波峰的定义,并构建详细的量化方法,对美国物理学会的期刊文献进行波峰识别,根据识别的波峰总结出六种引文曲线类型,最后基于文献的波峰数量、波峰位置、波峰间隔等特征探究波峰分布差异。发现大部分文献有且只有一个波峰,同时也存在两个或多个波峰的情况。文献一般在发表后初期到达首次波峰与最高峰(主要是发表后0~5 年、第1~2 年最为突出)。首次波峰的位置分布与最高峰位置分布显著正相关,高被引文献更易在发表初期达到首次波峰。

Citations are important carriers of scientific knowledge, and a citation peak reflects the most influential stage in the process of citation diffusion. In this study, the distribution of citation peaks was analyzed to provide a better understanding of the dynamic diffusion of scientific knowledge. A citation peak identification method was applied to the citation curves of articles in publications of the American Physical Society (APS 2013). Definition and quantification were included in the analysis, and six types of articles have been summarized. In the study, peak distribution was used to distinguish citation patterns based on the number of peaks, peak position, and peak interval. This article demonstrates that the most influential stage can be explained by a simple peak model, which allows us to probe differences in peak distribution quantitatively. Citation peaks of articles showed a high degree of temporal regularity, with most articles having only one peak. The first peak and the highest peak were generally reached within a few years after publication (most within five years, especially within the first or second year). The results also show that the first peak position has a positive and significant correlation with the distribution of the highest peak. We also found that highly cited papers are more likely to reach the first peak in the early phase of publication.