Identifying keyword sleeping beauties: A perspective on the knowledge diffusion process

Abstract

• We propose a new idea for investigating sleeping beauties in science and redefine their concepts at the granularity level of keywords. • Based on the survival analysis method, we compensate the defects of the beauty coefficient criterion by penalizing the early adoptions and propose an improved identification method for distinguishing keyword sleeping beauties. • We explore the awakening mechanism of the keyword sleeping beauties based on intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Knowledge diffusion is a significant driving force behind discipline development and technological innovation. Keyword is a unique knowledge diffusion trajectory, in which the sleeping beauty phenomenon sometimes appears. In this paper, we first put forward the concept of Keyword Sleeping Beauties (KSBs) on the basis of the scientific literature phenomenon of sleeping beauties. Then, we construct a parameter-free identification method to distinguish KSBs based on beauty coefficient criteria. Furthermore, we analyze the intrinsic and extrinsic influencing factors to explore the awakening mechanism of KSBs. The experiment results show that sleeping beauty phenomena also exist in the keyword diffusion trajectory and 284 KSBs are identified. The depth of sleep has a positive correlation with awakening intensity, while the length of sleep has a negative correlation with awakening intensity. In the two years of pre-awakening, KSBs tend to appear in the journals with a higher impact factor. In addition, the adoption frequency and the number of KSBs both increase obviously in the one year of pre-awakening. The findings of this paper enrich the patterns of knowledge diffusion and extend academic thinking on the sleeping beauty in science.