There is a new super interesting analysis of two research bubbles.
We introduce a diffusion index that quantifies whether research areas have been amplified within social and scientific bubbles, or have diffused and become evaluated more broadly. We illustrate the utility of our diffusion approach in tracking the trajectories of cardiac stem cell research (a bubble that collapsed) and cancer immunotherapy (which showed sustained growth).
Couldn’t we identify this stem cell bubble earlier? The authors believe that limited diffusion of biomedical knowledge anticipates abrupt decreases in popularity. But that takes time …
What’s again noticeable here, that in the stem cell research, the initial claim was later called into question leading to the retraction of more than 30 papers from claims of data fabrication.