Knowledge inheritance in disciplines: Quantifying the successive and distant reuse of references
Hongyu Zhou,
Ke Dong,
Yikun Xia
Abstract:How the knowledge base of disciplines grows, renews, and decays informs their distinct characteristics and epistemology. Here we track the evolution of knowledge bases of 19 disciplines for over 45 years. We introduce the notation of knowledge inheritance as the overlap in the set of references between years. We discuss two modes of knowledge inheritance of disciplines—successive and distant. To quantify the status and propensity of knowledge inheritance for disciplines, we propose two indicators: one descript… Show more
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