1. The boundary-spanning mechanisms of Nobel Prize winning papers
- Author
-
Chaomei Chen and Yakub Sebastian
- Subjects
FOS: Computer and information sciences ,Computer and Information Sciences ,Cell Physiology ,Entropy ,Autophagic Cell Death ,Science ,Boundary spanning ,Space (commercial competition) ,Bibliometrics ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Betweenness centrality ,Citation analysis ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Centrality ,Digital Libraries (cs.DL) ,Sociology ,Multidisciplinary ,Cell Death ,Physics ,Publications ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Computer Science - Digital Libraries ,Cell Biology ,Research Assessment ,Nobel Prize ,Databases as Topic ,Cell Processes ,Citation Analysis ,Physical Sciences ,Thermodynamics ,Medicine ,Bibliographies as Topic ,Mathematical economics ,Network Analysis ,Research Article - Abstract
The breakthrough potentials of research papers can be explained by their boundary-spanning qualities. Here, for the first time, we apply the structural variation analysis (SVA) model and its affiliated metrics to investigate the extent to which such qualities characterize a group of Nobel Prize winning papers. We find that these papers share remarkable boundary-spanning traits, marked by exceptional abilities to connect disparate and topically-diverse clusters of research papers. Further, their publications exert structural variations on the scale that significantly alters the betweenness centrality distributions of existing intellectual space. Overall, SVA not only provides a set of leading indicators for describing future Nobel Prize winning papers, but also broadens our understanding of the similar prize-winning properties that may have been overlooked among other regular publications., 27 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables. Submitted to Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics
- Published
- 2021