Selfish Memes: An Update of Richard Dawkins’ Bibliometric Analysis of Key Papers in Sociobiology

Abstract

Abstract:In the second edition of The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins included a short bibliometric analysis of key papers instrumental to the sociobiological revolution, the intention of which was to support his proposal that ideas spread within a population in an epidemiological manner. In his analysis, Dawkins primarily discussed the influence of an article by British evolutionary biologist William Donald Hamilton which had introduced the concept of "inclusive fitness", and he argued that citations to it were accumulating in a very different manner to two other seminal papers, demonstrating the appearance and spread of a new "meme" in academic circles. This paper re-examines Dawkins' original analysis and the conclusions drawn from it, and updates those conclusions based on citation data accumulated in the intervening three decades since publication. This updated analysis shows that patterns of citation for the three papers, and Dawkins' book itself, are actually remarkably similar and show no qualitative difference in citation growth. The data are well described by a two-phase exponential model of citation growth in which citations accumulate rapidly and then saturate at a slower level of growth dictated primarily by the general increase in scientific production. It is speculated that this two-phase exponential growth, with some modification to account for papers that are not immediately discovered, may be a signature that will help to reveal the emergence of genuinely novel ideas within the academic literature.

Asymmetry in Psychoactive Research: A Bibliometric Study on 15 Psychoactive Drugs

“…The number of scientific publications over time has been shown to follow an exponential growth (Zhang et al, 2019; Aaen-Stockdale, 2017), which is by definition monotonic. Therefore, periods of plateau or decay within the publication patterns suggest there are factors affecting this natural growth.…”

“…Curves on the number of publications per year were fitted to an exponential curve (equation (1)). The number of publications in a field has been shown to increase exponentially (Zhang, Quan, Xiao, & Du, 2019) and bibliometric studies typically use exponential fitting to describe the pattern of growth of publications in a topic (Aaen-Stockdale, 2017). The curve used in this study was defined aswhere r is the growth rate, t is time in years and a 0 is the value of y at time 0.…”

A Scientometric Study of Neurocomputing Publications (1992–2018): An Aerial Overview of Intrinsic Structure

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Digitalisasi Hadis Ala Pusat Kajian Hadis (PKH): Distribusi, Ciri, dan Kontribusi dalam Kajian Hadis Indonesia

“…15 Kajian lain meme selain hadis sudah banyak ditemukan. 16 Kajian yang ada atas persoalan hadis di era teknologi informasi yang ditemukan adalah seperti tantangan atas prodi hadis di era global. 17 Selain itu, kajian lain adalah tentang hadis di era global secara umum.…”