随着时间的推移，论文之间的距离缩短是由于更多的跨领域参考文献和更高影响力论文的引用率增加
Shorter Distances between Papers over Time are Due to More Cross-Field References and Increased Citation Rate to Higher Impact Papers
摘要：
科学出版物数量的指数增长提出了一个问题，即科学是否正在扩展到一个破碎的结构，使跨领域的交流变得困难。另一方面，科学家可能有动力跨领域广泛学习，以提高他们的创新能力，这可能抵消分散的负面影响。通过对横向引文网络内部距离和聚类的调查，本研究提供了科学领域随着时间的推移变得更加一体化的证据。同一年发表的论文之间的平均引用距离从1950年的约5.33步下降到2018年的3.18步。这一观察结果归因于整个期间跨外地交流的增长，以及同年高影响力论文对桥梁网络的日益重要性。三个实证研究结果支持这一结论。首先，在整个时期内，几乎所有学科之间的距离都在缩小。其次，论文被引用次数的不平等性增加，因此网络中的最短路径更多地依赖于后期的高影响力论文。第三，领域间联系的分散程度不断增加。此外，这些变化并没有降低引文的聚类水平。在所有年份中，领域内和跨领域引用都显示出类似的缓慢增长的聚类值。后者的研究结果表明，跨领域的学术交流部分是由连接学科的新领域所实现的。
英文摘要：
The exponential increase in the number of scientific publications raises the question of whether the sciences are expanding into a fractured structure, making cross-field communication difficult. On the other hand, scientists may be motivated to learn extensively across fields to enhance their innovative capacity, and this may offset the negative effects of fragmentation. Through an investigation of the distances within and clustering of cross-sectional citation networks, this study presents evidence that fields of science become more integrated over time. The average citation distance between papers published in the same year decreased from approximately 5.33 to 3.18 steps between 1950 and 2018. This observation is attributed to the growth of cross-field communication throughout the entire period as well as the growing importance of high impact papers to bridge networks in the same year. Three empirical findings support this conclusion. First, distances decreased between almost all disciplines throughout the time period. Second, inequality in the number of citations received by papers increased, and as a consequence the shortest paths in the network depend more on high impact papers later in the period. Third, the dispersion of connections between fields increased continually. Moreover, these changes did not entail a lower level of clustering of citations. Both within- and cross-field citations show a similar rate of slowly growing clustering values in all years. The latter findings suggest that domain spanning scholarly communication is partly enabled by new fields that connect disciplines.
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