The disruption index suffers from citation inflation and is confounded by shifts in scholarly citation practice: synthetic citation networks for bibliometric null models
Data files
Jun 28, 2023 version files 181.68 MB
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Dryad_OpenData.zip
181.37 MB
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README.pdf
310.52 KB
Jun 28, 2023 version files 181.68 MB
Abstract
README: The disruption index suffers from citation inflation and is confounded by shifts in scholarly citation practice: synthetic citation networks for bibliometric null models
https://doi.org/10.6071/M3G674
Description of the data and file structure
Enclosed data were generated using a synthetic citation network model developed and reported in: Pan, R. K., Petersen, A. M., Pammolli, F. & Fortunato, S. The memory of science: Inflation, myopia, and the knowledge network. Journal of Informetrics 12, 656–678 (2018). Data and their description are provided in the enclosed document: ReadMe_DataDescription.pdf. Provided are raw network data produced for 6 citation network scenarios. For each scenario we include 4 synthetic networks each, for a total of 24 citation networks. Each citation network is comprised of 125270 nodes that were systematically added in cohorts, therefore representing null model for evolving citation networks, and thereby useful for benchmarking existing and new bibliometric measures.
Files and variables
File: README.pdf
Description: An extended description of the files and their data format
File: Dryad_OpenData.zip
Description: A folder containing the synthetic networks and Mathematica notebooks (code) for visualizing the results
Code/software
Data were analyzed and visualized using notebooks developed with Mathematica 13.0, which should be compatible with future software versions. The workflow for executing Mathematica notebooks is simply Shift+Enter to execute commands contained in any given cell; the initial cells upload the data files, and from there the notebook cells should be executed from start to end in linear order.
Methods
The enclosed supporting data accompanies the following research articles:
- Alexander M. Petersen, Felber Arroyave, Fabio Pammolli (2025). The disruption index suffers from citation inflation: re-analysis of temporal CD trend and relationship with team size reveal discrepancies. J. Informetrics 19, 101605 (2025). DOI:10.1016/j.joi.2024.101605
- Alexander M. Petersen, Felber Arroyave, Fabio Pammolli (2024). The disruption index is biased by citation inflation. Quantitative Science Studies (2024). DOI:10.1162/qss_a_00333
Enclosed data were generated using a synthetic citation network model developed and reported in:
Pan, R. K., Petersen, A. M., Pammolli, F. & Fortunato, S. The memory of science: Inflation, myopia, and the knowledge network. Journal of Informetrics 12, 656–678 (2018).
To summarize, provided are raw network data produced for 6 citation network scenarios. For each scenario, we include 4 synthetic networks each, for a total of 24 citation networks. Each citation network is comprised of 125270 nodes that were systematically added in cohorts, therefore representing a null model for evolving citation networks, and thereby useful for benchmarking existing and new bibliometric measures.
Usage notes
Enclosed code was developed using Mathematica 13 software, which should be backwards compatible with previous versions since the notebooks do not use any new functionality introduced in v13.