Tipping point (physics)

Electrical engineering

Sociology

Business

Neuroscience

Perception

Mathematics

Social science

Epistemology

Engineering

Library science

Marketing

Philosophy

Political science

Psychology

Geometry

Citation impact

Quality (philosophy)

Citation

Public relations

Computer science

Reputation

Point (geometry)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance Over a scientist’s career, a reputation is developed, a standing within a research community, based largely upon the quantity and quality of his/her publications. Here, we develop a framework for quantifying the influence author reputation has on a publication’s future impact. We find author reputation plays a key role in driving a paper’s citation count early in its citation life cycle, before a tipping point, after which reputation has much less influence relative to the paper’s citation count. In science, perceived quality, and decisions made based on those perceptions, is increasingly linked to citation counts. Shedding light on the complex mechanisms driving these quantitative measures facilitates not only better evaluation of scientific outputs but also a more transparent evaluation of the scientists producing them.

Reputation and impact in academic careers