Other significant uncited papers
Using Nobel laureate Abdus Salam as an example, Mart (symmetry, February 2006) informed readers that papers of symposium proceedings received no citation count and fortunately, the Nobel committee dug out the paper in a proceeding and recognized the originality as well as priority of Salam's work. I would like to offer another example on the significance of a paper that appeared in a symposium proceedings: Koichi Tanaka (2002 Nobel in Chemistry). Fortunately again, the Nobel committee sought out this paper to signify Tanaka's pioneer work.
The significance of a paper is occasionally not determined by the journal's name and associated reputation where the paper was printed. For example, in the obituary of Edward B. Lewis (1995 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine), Matthew P. Scott and Peter A. Lawrence wrote, "For those who suspect that the present emphasis on publication is overdone, Lewis provides a superb role model. He published rarely and did not seem to care where. Some of his papers came out in such obscure journals that they were exchanged, like samizdat, as faded Xerox copies." (Nature 431, 143, 2004).
Canadian stem cell scientists Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till (2005 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research) published their breakthrough paper in a journal, which was not and is not as famous asNature or Science.
Lastly, it would be unbelievable for present day researchers that the great American physicist Willard Gibbs published his important papers in a local journal Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, which had limited circulation and was little read. It was Wilhelm Ostwald who translated Gibbs's paper into German to make his ideas gaining more recognition in Europe.
Min-Liang Wong, Department of Veterinary Medicine,
National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan
References:
1. Salam, A. in Elementary Particle Theory, Proceedings of the Nobel Symposium held 1968 at Lerum, Sweden, (ed Svartholm, N) p.367-377 (Stockholm 1968).
2. Tanaka, K., Ido, Y., Akita, S., Yoshida, Y. and Yoshida, T. in Proc. Second Japan-China Joint Symposium on Mass Spectrometry. (eds Matsuda, H. and Xiao-tian, L.) p.185-188 (Osaka, Japan, 15-18 September 1987).
3. McCulloch, E. A. and Till J. E. The radiation sensitivity of normal mouse bone marrow cells, determined by quantitative marrow transplantation into irradiated mice. Radiat. Res. 13, 115-125 (1960). 4. Rukeyser, M. Willard Gibbs. (reprinted by the Ox Bow Press, Woodbridge, CT, 1988).
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