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Nearly half the papers published in scientific journals disappear without
trace. Sidney Redner, a polymer scientist at Boston University, has analysed the
database of papers maintained by the Institute for Scientific Information in
Philadelphia. Of those published between 1981 and 1997, 47 per cent were never
referred to again in the scientific literature, even by the researchers who did
the work. Another 33 per cent were cited 10 times or fewer, while just 0.1 per
cent of papers attracted more than 1000 citations.