Page - (000265) - in Knowledge and Networks

261 Discussion and Conclusion There were three primary findings. First, high tail novelty papers had higher impact than low tail novelty papers, an impact advantage that occurred at any level of con- ventionality and regardless of authorship structure. Second, peak impact occurs in the 85–95th percentile of median conventionality, an exceptionally high level. This peak and its position appeared irrespective of tail novelty/no tail novelty or author- ship structure. These generic features suggest fundamental underlying rules relating combinations of prior work to the highest impact science. Finally, Fig. 12.4 indicates that for virtually all possible mixes of tail novelty and median conventionality, larger teams were associated with higher impact. Thus, while teams incorporated the highest impact mixes more frequently (Fig. 12.3), teams also tended to obtain higher impact for any particular mix (Fig. 12.4). Nonetheless, despite this advantage in citations across virtually all fields of science (Wuchty et al., 2007), even teams had low impact at low levels of median conven- tionality and tail novelty. 0.030 0.025 0.020 5 Percentiles of median z-score Percentiles of median z-score 25 45 55 653515 75 85 95 99 5 25 45 55 653515 75 85 95 99 Pair Authors, High Tail Novelty Pair Authors, Low Tail Novelty Solo Author, High Tail Novelty Solo Author, Low Tail Novelty Percentiles of median z-score 5 25 45 55 653515 75 85 95 99 Team Authors, Low Tail Novelty Team Authors, High Tail Novelty 0.015 0.010 0.005 0.000 0.030 0.025 0.020 0.015 0.010 0.005 0.000 Fig. 12.10 Novelty, authorship and impact for top 1 % of papers. This figure repeats Fig. 12.9 but defines hit papers as those that receive citations within 8 years of publication that are in the upper 1 % of all papers published that year. From Uzzi et al. (2013b, p. 16). Copyright 2013 by Science. Adapted with permission from the authors and Science 12 How Atypical Combinations of Scientific Ideas Are Related to Impact:…