What makes a scientific article influential?

In this paper we examine, by means of a citation analysis, whichfactors influence the impact of articles published indemography journals between 1990 and 1992. Several quantifiablecharacteristics of the articles (characteristics withrespect to authors, visibility, content and journals) are stronglyrelated to their subsequent impact in the social sciences.Articles are most frequently cited when they deal with empirical,ahistorical research focusing on populations in thedeveloped world, when they are prominently placed in a journal issue,when they are written in English and when theyappear in core demography journals. Furthermore, although eminentscholars are likely to be cited on the basis of theirreputation, the effect of reputation appears to be small indemography.