One widely repeated estimate, reported in a controversial article in Science in 1990, suggests that more than half of all academic articles remain uncited five years after their publication2. Scientists genuinely fret about this issue, says Jevin West, an information scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies large-scale patterns in research literature. After all, citations are widely recognized as a standard measure of academic influence: a marker that work not only has been read, but also has proved useful to later studies. Researchers worry that high rates of uncitedness point to a heap of useless or irrelevant research. “I can’t tell you how many people over dinner have asked me: ‘How much of the literature is never cited?’” West says.
According to a study published in the journal Nature, approximately 10% of papers end up without a single citation.
Yes, the study found that papers in the fields of humanities and social sciences are more likely to have no citations compared to papers in the natural sciences and medicine.
There are several factors that can contribute to a paper receiving no citations, such as poor research design, lack of novelty or relevance, and limited dissemination of the paper.
While papers with no citations may not directly contribute to the advancement of science, they can still provide valuable insights and information that can be built upon by other researchers in the future.
Success in science is not solely determined by the number of citations a paper receives. Papers with no citations can still be considered successful if they contribute to the knowledge base, generate discussion, or lead to future research in the field.