Kim et al., "Uncovering simultaneous breakthroughs with a robust measure of disruptiveness" (2026)

Munjung Kim, Sadamori Kojaku, and Yong-Yeol Ahn, Science Advances 12(14), eadx3420 (2026)
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@article{kim2026uncovering,
    author = {Munjung Kim and Sadamori Kojaku and Yong-Yeol Ahn},
    title = {Uncovering simultaneous breakthroughs with a robust measure of disruptiveness},
    journal = {Science Advances},
    volume = {12},
    number = {14},
    pages = {eadx3420},
    doi = {10.1126/sciadv.adx3420},
    year = {2026},
}

We demonstrate critical shortcomings of the Disruption index—including conflicting evaluations for simultaneous discoveries—and propose the Embedding disruptiveness measure, a continuous measure based on a neural embedding framework. Our measure better identifies disruptive works (e.g., Nobel Prize-winning papers) and reveals “twin” simultaneous disruptions by comparing future citation contexts.