A Semantic Geometry for Uncovering Paradigm Dynamics via Scientific Publications
For researchers studying the dynamics of scientific paradigms, this framework offers a quantitative method to monitor paradigm shifts and understand citation trajectory differences.
The paper proposes a semantic geometry based on the R-P-C framework to quantify how scientific publications position themselves relative to their knowledge base and diffusion, identifying three publication types (consolidating, exploratory, balanced). It shows that semantic similarity and distance between knowledge base and diffusion mechanistically explain disruption, with novelty as an antecedent disturbance, and that team size correlates with paradigm dynamics.
Science advances not only by accumulating discovered patterns but by changing how new problems and solutions are expressed. While structural indicators track scholarly attention, they offer only an indirect proxy for the reorganization of meaning. We propose a semantic geometry based on the R-P-C (references, focal publication, and citing publications) framework to quantify how a publication positions itself relative to its knowledge base and diffusion. This geometry identifies three publication types: consolidating, exploratory and balanced. Our results show that the semantic similarity and distance between a publication's knowledge base and diffusion serve as a mechanistic explanation for disruption, with novelty (atypical reference combinations) acting as an antecedent disturbance that triggers a semantic rupture. This is related to team size, where small teams preserve a higher potential for exploratory departures while large collaborations systematically align with paradigmatic consolidation. Crucially, this geometry explains why citation trajectories differ; consolidating research earns rapid recognition by lowering comprehension costs, while exploratory work faces high paradigm conversion costs that result in slower, more selective diffusion. Collectively, this R-P-C framework provides a robust instrument for monitoring the dynamic of scientific paradigms.