Kojaku et al., "Community-centric modeling of citation dynamics explains collective citation patterns in science, law, and patents" (2025)

Sadamori Kojaku, Robert Mahari, Sandro Claudio Lera, Esteban Moro, Alex Pentland, and Yong-Yeol Ahn, Nature Communications, in press (2026)
arXiv

@article{kojaku2026communitycentric,
    author = {Sadamori Kojaku and Robert Mahari and Sandro Claudio Lera and Esteban Moro and Alex Pentland and Yong-Yeol Ahn},
    title = {Community-centric modeling of citation dynamics explains collective citation patterns in science, law, and patents},
    journal = {Nature Communications},
    year = {2026},
    eprint = {2501.15552},
    archivePrefix = {arXiv},
    primaryClass = {physics.soc-ph},
}

We analyze Citation patterns across scientific papers, legal cases, and patents, discovering shared structural similarities including heavy-tailed distributions of “sleeping beauties” (works with delayed recognition). We develop a model capturing three core mechanisms that drive collective citation dynamics and successfully replicate delayed recognition—something existing individual-focused models fail to explain. The findings suggest universal principles govern how knowledge spreads and gains recognition across different domains. See also Radicchi et al. (2008) on the universality of citation distributions and Mones et al. (2021) on legal citation network analysis.