Disruption index

updated: 2022-11-30
#network-science #network-science/disruption-index

A disruptive innovation may introduce a new paradigm of knowledge development. The disruption index is intended to identify disruptive works from citation data based on the premise that the disruptive works would substantially replace the existing works and singlehandedly receive citations from subsequent works. The "existing" works roughly correspond to those cited by the disruptive paper, and the "subsequent" works roughly correspond to those citing the disruptive paper. This structure is manifested as a bow-tie structure with a disruptive paper being at its center.

The disruption index is a way to operationalize the level of disruption a paper creates. The effectiveness of the disruption index has been demonstrated in the science and technology domains:

• A Dynamic Network Measure of Technological Change | Management Science
• Large teams develop and small teams disrupt science and technology | Nature
• Disruptive papers published in Scientometrics | SpringerLink
• CSDL | IEEE Computer Society

However, the disruption index has critical flaws, such as the sensitivity to missing citations, misleading interpretations, and confusing definitions.

• A confusing definition of disruption
• Rethinking the disruption index as a measure of scientific and technological advances - ScienceDirect

Is the disruption index a discontinuous index?