We propose a method to measure the potential scholarly impact of researchers based on network structural variations they introduced to the underlying author co-citation network of their field. We applied the method to the information science field based on 91,978 papers published between 1979 and 2018 from the Web of Science. We divided the entire period into eight consecutive intervals and measured structural variation change rates (ΔM) of individual authors in corresponding author co-citation networks. Four types of researchers are identified in terms of temporal dynamics of their potential scholarly impact-1) Increasing, 2) Decreasing, 3) Sustained, and 4) Transient. The study contributes to the understanding of how researchers' scholarly impact might evolve in a broad context of the corresponding research community. Specifically, this study illustrated a crucial role played by structural variation metrics in measuring and explaining the potential scholarly impact of a researcher. This method based on the structural variation analysis offers a theoretical framework and a practical platform to analyze the potential scholarly impact of researchers and their specific contributions.
Sleeping Beauties in Science have attracted a lot of attention in scientometrics and beyond. However, sleeping beauties also appear in patent. In this paper, we put forward the concept of patent sleeping beauties. Since the evolution trajectory of patents after public announcement includes citation, transformation and license, we have defined the evolution trajectories of patents through three indicators including early sudden awakening (the "Flash in the pan"), early gradual awakening (the "Pea Princess"), delay gradual awakening (the "Ugly Duckling"), delay sudden awakening (the "sleeping beauty") and sleeping patent. Furthermore, this paper constructs a quantitative model to identify patent sleeping beauties. Taking the graphene technology patent of China as an example, this paper identified the patent sleeping beauties in graphene technology, and found that the number of sleeping beauty patents accounted for only 0.59% of all patents. In the aspect of patent awakening mode, the awakening of patents with gradual awakening is mainly caused by both cited and transferred or cited and licensed. However, both the flash-in-the-pan and the sleeping beauty patents are mainly caused by transferring or licensing single factor. At the same time, through investigation, we found that patent invalidation will not hinder patent awakening, patent awakening will extend the effective life of patents. At last, we provide policy implications for researchers and managers.
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