Abstract(s)
Since the publication of Robert K. Merton’s theory of
cumulative advantage in science (Matthew Effect), several empirical studies have tried to measure its presence
at the level of papers, individual researchers, institutions,
or countries. However, these studies seldom control
for the intrinsic “quality” of papers or of researchers—
“better” (however defined) papers or researchers could
receive higher citation rates because they are indeed of
better quality. Using an original method for controlling
the intrinsic value of papers—identical duplicate papers
published in different journals with different impact
factors—this paper shows that the journal in which
papers are published have a strong influence on their
citation rates, as duplicate papers published in highimpact journals obtain, on average, twice as many citations as their identical counterparts published in journals
with lower impact factors. The intrinsic value of a paper
is thus not the only reason a given paper gets cited or
not, there is a specific Matthew Effect attached to journals and this gives to papers published there an added
value over and above their intrinsic quality.