From consolidation to disruption: A novel way to measure the impact of scientists and identify laureates

Abstract

This study proposes a novel approach for evaluating the impact of scientists by introducing a new set of metrics and a dual measurement framework that combines the concepts of disruption and consolidation. Traditional metrics like total citation and h-index are limited in their ability to capture the full range of a scientist's influence, and therefore the Scientists' Disruptive Citation (SDC), Disruptive h-index (D h-index), and consolidating metrics are introduced to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of scientists' disruptive and consolidating influence. Using a dataset of 463,348 papers, 234,086 disambiguated scientists, and data on three important awards, including Nobel Prize, Wolf Prize, and Dirac Medal, in the field of Physics, this study demonstrates that the SDC and D h-index are superior to all benchmark metrics, including the conventional and normalized disruption-based measures, in terms of convergent validity. Second, this study analyzes the distribution of academic characteristics between award-winning and non-laureates, explores various metrics of scientists with high SDC and Scientists' Consolidating Citation (SCC), and finds that disruptive impact can identify successful scientists from their counterparts and serve as an early signal of successful scientists. Third, this study reveals that the disruptive citation proposed in this study is less susceptible to manipulation, making it a more reliable metric for assessing a scientist's or a single paper's disruptive impact than the CD-index. The results suggest that the SDC and D h-index are reliable metrics for measuring scientists' innovative influence and can aid in the development of future scientific research. Overall, this study provides a scientifically sound and effective new perspective on measuring scientists using a dual measurement of disruptive and consolidating influence.