@article{cd9905bcd8dd460e832d93664c18930f,
title = "What Types of Novelty Are Most Disruptive?",
abstract = "Novelty and impact are key characteristics of the scientific enterprise. Classic theories of scientific change distinguish among different types of novelty and emphasize how a new idea interacts with previous work and influences future flows of knowledge. However, even recently developed measures of novelty remain unidimensional, and continued reliance on citation counts captures only the amount, but not the nature, of scientific impact. To better align theoretical and empirical work, we attend to different types of novelty (new results, new theories, and new methods) and whether a scientific offering has a consolidating form of influence (bringing renewed attention to foundational ideas) or a disruptive one (prompting subsequent scholars to overlook them). By integrating data from the Web of Science (to measure the nature of influence) with essays written by authors of Citation Classics (to measure novelty type), and by joining computational text analysis with statistical analyses, we demonstrate clear and robust patterns between type of novelty and the nature of scientific influence. As expected, new methods tend to be more disruptive, whereas new theories tend to be less disruptive. Surprisingly, new results do not have a robust effect on the nature of scientific influence.",
keywords = "disruption, innovation, novelty, originality, science",
author = "Erin Leahey and Jina Lee and Funk, {Russell J.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Michael Park for research assistance, Sarah Kaplan for a friendly review, and Joseph Broschak, Ronald Breiger, Joseph Galaskiewicz, Diego Leal, Eugene Paik, and Zhoufan Li for insightful feedback on earlier versions. Input from ASR reviewers, as well as audiences at Brown, Indiana, Leiden, UNC, and MIT{\textquoteright}s Economic Sociology seminar helped us improve the manuscript substantially. This research was supported by NSF Collaborative research grants to Erin Leahey (#1829302) and Russell J. Funk (#1829168). The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The research was also supported by Collaborative Archive & Data Research Environment (CADRE) project (http://doi.org/10.26313/rdy8-4w58 ). Thus, the authors received some support through CADRE{\textquoteright}s funders. CADRE was developed with support from a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS; grant number LG-70-18-0202-18), including cost-share from the Big Ten Academic Alliance Library Initiatives (BTAA), Microsoft Research, the Web of Science Group, and academic university libraries (Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Purdue University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Penn State University, University of Iowa, and Rutgers University). Funding Information: This research was supported by NSF Collaborative research grants to Erin Leahey (#1829302) and Russell J. Funk (#1829168). The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The research was also supported by Collaborative Archive & Data Research Environment (CADRE) project ( http://doi.org/10.26313/rdy8-4w58 ). Thus, the authors received some support through CADRE{\textquoteright}s funders. CADRE was developed with support from a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS; grant number LG-70-18-0202-18), including cost-share from the Big Ten Academic Alliance Library Initiatives (BTAA), Microsoft Research, the Web of Science Group, and academic university libraries (Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Purdue University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Penn State University, University of Iowa, and Rutgers University). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} American Sociological Association 2023.",
year = "2023",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1177/00031224231168074",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "88",
pages = "562--597",
journal = "American Sociological Review",
issn = "0003-1224",
publisher = "American Sociological Association",
number = "3",
}