Temporal patterns of genes in scientific publications.

ABSTRACT: Publications in scientific journals contain a considerable fraction of our scientific knowledge. Analyzing data from publication databases helps us understand how this knowledge is obtained and how it changes over time. In this study, we present a mathematical model for the temporal dynamics of data on the scientific content of publications. Our data set consists of references to thousands of genes in the >15 million publications listed in PubMed. We show that the observed dynamics may result from a simple process: Researchers predominantly publish on genes that already appear in many publications. This might be a rewarding strategy for researchers, because there is a positive correlation between the frequency of a gene in scientific publications and the journal impact of the publications.

SUBMITTER: Pfeiffer T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1924584 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature