A bibliometric evaluation of the impact of theories of consciousness in academia and on social media

Andy Wai Kan YEUNG; Cody A. CUSHING; Alan L.F. LEE

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2022.103296

A bibliometric evaluation of the impact of theories of consciousness in academia and on social media

Andy Wai Kan YEUNG, Cody A. CUSHING, Alan L.F. LEE^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Consciousness science has faced both opportunities and challenges in recent years. Some popular theories of consciousness have been described as unfalsifiable and some as “overpromoted”. To objectively evaluate the state of consciousness science as a field, we analyzed bibliometric data for five major theories of consciousness: Global workspace (GWT), Higher-order (HOT), Integrated information (IIT), Local recurrent (LRT), and Quantum theories (QT). We analyzed academic publications, citations, and Twitter activity for each theory. We found that IIT had the highest growth rates in quantity metrics (e.g. publication and citation counts) but was worse in quality metrics (e.g., per-publication citations, proportion of citations with empirical support/contradiction). On social media, IIT and QT were the most-tweeted theories, but their tweets mostly came from the general public. Our findings suggest that a theory’s fast growth in quantity and lack of quality could be explained by its overpromotion on social media.

Original language	English
Article number	103296
Number of pages	14
Journal	Consciousness and Cognition
Volume	100
Early online date	2 Mar 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103296
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

We would like to thank Hakwan Lau, Matthias Michel, and Mouslim Cherkaoui for their constructive comments during the draft of this paper.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022

Funding

This work was supported by the University Grant Council and Lingnan University to AL [Research Matching Grant, 185218]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Keywords

Bibliometrics
Consciousness
Consciousness theories
Metascience
Social media
Social Media
Humans

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10.1016/j.concog.2022.103296

Cite this

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title = "A bibliometric evaluation of the impact of theories of consciousness in academia and on social media",

abstract = "Consciousness science has faced both opportunities and challenges in recent years. Some popular theories of consciousness have been described as unfalsifiable and some as “overpromoted”. To objectively evaluate the state of consciousness science as a field, we analyzed bibliometric data for five major theories of consciousness: Global workspace (GWT), Higher-order (HOT), Integrated information (IIT), Local recurrent (LRT), and Quantum theories (QT). We analyzed academic publications, citations, and Twitter activity for each theory. We found that IIT had the highest growth rates in quantity metrics (e.g. publication and citation counts) but was worse in quality metrics (e.g., per-publication citations, proportion of citations with empirical support/contradiction). On social media, IIT and QT were the most-tweeted theories, but their tweets mostly came from the general public. Our findings suggest that a theory{\textquoteright}s fast growth in quantity and lack of quality could be explained by its overpromotion on social media.",

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author = "YEUNG, {Andy Wai Kan} and CUSHING, {Cody A.} and LEE, {Alan L.F.}",

note = "We would like to thank Hakwan Lau, Matthias Michel, and Mouslim Cherkaoui for their constructive comments during the draft of this paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022",

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AU - LEE, Alan L.F.

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N2 - Consciousness science has faced both opportunities and challenges in recent years. Some popular theories of consciousness have been described as unfalsifiable and some as “overpromoted”. To objectively evaluate the state of consciousness science as a field, we analyzed bibliometric data for five major theories of consciousness: Global workspace (GWT), Higher-order (HOT), Integrated information (IIT), Local recurrent (LRT), and Quantum theories (QT). We analyzed academic publications, citations, and Twitter activity for each theory. We found that IIT had the highest growth rates in quantity metrics (e.g. publication and citation counts) but was worse in quality metrics (e.g., per-publication citations, proportion of citations with empirical support/contradiction). On social media, IIT and QT were the most-tweeted theories, but their tweets mostly came from the general public. Our findings suggest that a theory’s fast growth in quantity and lack of quality could be explained by its overpromotion on social media.

AB - Consciousness science has faced both opportunities and challenges in recent years. Some popular theories of consciousness have been described as unfalsifiable and some as “overpromoted”. To objectively evaluate the state of consciousness science as a field, we analyzed bibliometric data for five major theories of consciousness: Global workspace (GWT), Higher-order (HOT), Integrated information (IIT), Local recurrent (LRT), and Quantum theories (QT). We analyzed academic publications, citations, and Twitter activity for each theory. We found that IIT had the highest growth rates in quantity metrics (e.g. publication and citation counts) but was worse in quality metrics (e.g., per-publication citations, proportion of citations with empirical support/contradiction). On social media, IIT and QT were the most-tweeted theories, but their tweets mostly came from the general public. Our findings suggest that a theory’s fast growth in quantity and lack of quality could be explained by its overpromotion on social media.

KW - Bibliometrics

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KW - Consciousness theories

KW - Metascience

KW - Social media

KW - Social Media

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A bibliometric evaluation of the impact of theories of consciousness in academia and on social media

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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Replication and extension of crucial John Grimes experiment: Change detection during saccades (LU Part)

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A bibliometric evaluation of the impact of theories of consciousness in academia and on social media

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

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Replication and extension of crucial John Grimes experiment: Change detection during saccades (LU Part)

Cite this