What Makes a Scientific Paper Influential? - a Citation Analysis

In this paper we examine, by means of a citation analysis, which factors influence the impact of scientific articles published in all demography journals registered by the SSCI between 1990 and 1992. Several quantifiable characteristics of the articles (characteristics with respect to authors, visibility, content and journals) are strongly related to their subsequent impact in the social sciences. Articles are most frequently cited when they deal with empirical, ahistorical research focusing on populations in the developed world, when they are prominently placed in a journal issue, when they are written in English and when they appear in core (demography) journals. Furthermore, although eminent scholars are likely to be cited on the basis of their reputation, the effect of reputation appears to be small