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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Revolutionary discoveries and the disruption index: Probing the relationship

  • Lutz Bornmann1,2
  • Robin Haunschild2
  • Søren Riis Paludan3
  • K. Brad Wray3,4
4 affiliations
  1. 1Science Policy and Strategy Department, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany
  2. 2Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany
  3. 3Department of Biomedicine, Center for Immunology of Viral Infections, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark
  4. 4Department of Mathematics, Centre for Science Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark
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Abstract

A few years ago, the Disruption Index (DI) was proposed as a tool for identifying disruptive research. However, it remains unclear whether the index actually measures what it claims to measure. Our proposed survey plans to examine the extent to which the papers identified by the DI as especially disruptive are the same as the papers that scientists working in a field identify as especially disruptive. We, thus, aim to test an assumption about what the DI measures, specifically, that papers with high DI values are papers reporting revolutionary discoveries. We will focus on the field of immunology. Our survey data will be drawn from researchers who have published many papers in immunology.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{bornmann2026revolutionary,
  title = {{Revolutionary discoveries and the disruption index: Probing the relationship}},
  author = {Lutz Bornmann and Robin Haunschild and Søren Riis Paludan and K. Brad Wray},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0360037},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360037},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Revolutionary discoveries and the disruption index: Probing the relationship
AU  - Lutz Bornmann
AU  - Robin Haunschild
AU  - Søren Riis Paludan
AU  - K. Brad Wray
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/27
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0360037
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360037
AB  - A few years ago, the Disruption Index (DI) was proposed as a tool for identifying disruptive research. However, it remains unclear whether the index actually measures what it claims to measure. Our proposed survey plans to examine the extent to which the papers identified by the DI as especially disruptive are the same as the papers that scientists working in a field identify as especially disruptive. We, thus, aim to test an assumption about what the DI measures, specifically, that papers with high DI values are papers reporting revolutionary discoveries. We will focus on the field of immunology. Our survey data will be drawn from researchers who have published many papers in immunology.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -