‘Sleeping Beauty’ Studies Don’t Pay Off for Decades

Some discoveries fade into obscurity, while other blaze a new trail the moment they’re published.

A prime example is a paper by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen that laid out the "EPR Paradox," a major puzzle in quantum entanglement theory. The paper, published in 1935, didn't receive widespread citation until 1994. Oren Jack Turner via Wikimedia Commons

Some discoveries fade into obscurity, while other blaze a new trail the moment they’re published. More mysteriously, some research papers remain dormant for years before suddenly exploding with great impact on the scientific community.

That second group, dubbed “sleeping beauties,” is the subject of a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This study provides empirical evidence that a paper can truly be ‘ahead of its time,’” said Alessandro Flammini, an associate professor of informatics and corresponding author on the study. “A ‘premature’ topic may fail to attract attention even when it is introduced by authors who have already established a strong scientific reputation.”

Above, the top 20 disciplines producing "sleeping beauties" in science. Courtesy Alessandro Flammini | Indiana University