Citation Distance: Measuring Changes in Scientific Search Strategies

Ryan Whalen, Yun Huang, Craig Tanis, Anup Sawant, Brian Uzzi, Noshir Contractor

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using latent semantic analysis on the full text of scientific articles, we measure the distance between 36 million citing/cited article pairs and chart changes in citation proximity over time. The analysis shows that the mean distance between citing and cited articles has steadily increased since 1990. This demonstrates that current scholars are more likely to cite distantly related research than their peers of 20 years ago who tended to cite more proximate work. These changes coincide with the introduction of new information technologies like the Internet, and the increasing popularity of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. The "citation distance"measure shows promise in improving our understanding of the evolution of knowledge. It also offers a method to add nuance to scholarly impact measures by assessing the extent to which an article influences proximate or distant future work.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWWW 2016 Companion - Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on World Wide Web
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages419-423
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781450341448
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 11 2016
Event25th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2016 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: May 11 2016May 15 2016

Publication series

NameWWW 2016 Companion - Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on World Wide Web

Conference

Conference25th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2016
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period5/11/165/15/16

Keywords

  • citation analysis
  • citation distance
  • scholarly impact

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Software

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Citation Distance: Measuring Changes in Scientific Search Strategies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this