Indicators of science: Notes and queries

They called the papers with Delayed recognition “sleepers”.

Not only would the overlapping selec- tions be of considerable interest (that is, advances immediately recognized as scien- tifically consequential and which prove out in the long run), so too would be cases of non-overlap: contributions that are “flashes in the pan” (also immediately noticed but not pr6ving out), and those that are “sleepers”. The “sleepers” may be of special interest; they were not recognized at the time by expert panels of asses- sors as advancing science, but were so recognized by the longer term and system- atic prospective studies. These contributions qualify as being “ahead of their time” or “premature” (Stent 1972; Merton 1976, pp. 139-40). Identifying such contribu- tions would not only help to gauge the validity of then-and-there appraisals of scientific advances but should also help to identify the sorts of”conditions which make for initial neglect of contributions later judged to be important.