Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The phenomenon of all-elements-sleeping-beauties in scientific literature

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The phenomenon of all-elements-sleeping-beauties in science is revealed by four special cases. The ‘sleeping beauties’ prick their fingers on the ‘spindles’ so that they fall into sleep then are awakened by their ‘princes’. The authors speculate that the phenomenon could happen in scientific literatures with high quality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

References

  • Barher, B. (1961). Resistance by scientists to scientific discovery. Science, 134, 596–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, T., Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (2010). On sleeping beauties, princes and other tales of citation distributions. Research Evaluation, 19(3), 195–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrell, Q. L. (2005). Are ‘Sleeping Beauties’ to be expected? Scientometrics, 65(3), 381–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. (1970). Professional standing and the reception of scientific discoveries. American Journal of Sociology, 76, 286–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egghe, L., Guns, R., & Rousseau, R. (2011). Thoughts on uncitedness: Nobel laureates and fields medalists as case studies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(8), 1637–1644.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1980). Premature discovery or delayed recognition-why? Current Comments, 4, 488–493.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., & Garfield, E. (2004). The myth of delayed recognition. Scientist, 18(11), 8–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stent, G. S. (1972). Prematurity and uniqueness in scientific discovery. Scientific American, 227(6), 84–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Raan, A. F. J. (2004). Sleeping Beauties in science. Scientometrics, 59, 467–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wyatt, H. V. (1975). Knowledge and prematurity-journey from transformation to DNA. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 18(2), 149–156.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ms. Regina P. Entorf for her kind mailing the book A Century of Nature to us, acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No 71173187) for financial support, and comments from Mr. Star X. Zhao.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Resource Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Jiang Li & Fred Y. Ye

Authors
  1. Jiang Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fred Y. Ye
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fred Y. Ye.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Li, J., Ye, F.Y. The phenomenon of all-elements-sleeping-beauties in scientific literature. Scientometrics 92, 795–799 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0643-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0643-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation