Main content
Too Many Papers? Slowed Canonical Progress in Large Fields of Science
Date created: | Last Updated:
: DOI | ARK
Creating DOI. Please wait...
Category: Project
Description: We argue that paradigmatic progress may be slowed as scientific fields grow large. This assertion is supported by evidence from citation patterns across 251 fields—over 1 billion citations among 57 million papers over 54 years—covered by the Web of Science dataset. A deluge of papers in a scientific field does not lead to quick turnover of central ideas, but rather to the ossification of canon.