How the knowledge base of disciplines grows, renews, and decays informs their distinct characteristics and epistemology. Here we track the evolution of knowledge bases of 19 disciplines for over 45 years. We introduce the notation of knowledge inheritance as the overlap in the set of references between years. We discuss two modes of knowledge inheritance of disciplines—successive and distant. To quantify the status and propensity of knowledge inheritance for disciplines, we propose two indicators: one descriptively describes knowledge base evolution, and one estimates the propensity of knowledge inheritance. When observing the continuity in knowledge bases for disciplines, we show distinct patterns for STEM and SS&H disciplines: the former inherits knowledge bases more successively, yet the latter inherits significantly from distant knowledge bases. We further discover stagnation or revival in knowledge base evolution where older knowledge base ceases to decay after 10 years (e.g., Physics and Mathematics) and are increasingly reused (e.g., Philosophy). Regarding the propensity of inheriting prior knowledge bases, we observe unanimous rises in both successive and distant knowledge inheritance. We show that knowledge inheritance could reveal disciplinary characteristics regarding the trajectory of knowledge base evolution and interesting insights into the metabolism and maturity of scholarly communication.

中文翻译：

---

学科中的知识继承：量化参考文献的连续和远程重用


学科的知识基础如何增长、更新和衰退，揭示了它们独特的特征和认识论。在这里，我们追踪了 19 个学科知识库 45 年多来的演变。我们将知识继承的符号引入为年份之间参考集的重叠。我们讨论学科知识传承的两种模式——连续式和远程式。为了量化学科知识传承的状况和倾向，我们提出了两个指标：一是描述性描述知识库的演化，二是估计知识传承的倾向。在观察学科知识库的连续性时，我们显示出 STEM 和 SS&H 学科的不同模式：前者更连续地继承知识库，而后者则显着地继承较远的知识库。我们进一步发现知识库演化的停滞或复兴，旧的知识库在 10 年后不再衰退（例如物理和数学）并且越来越多地被重用（例如哲学）。关于继承先验知识库的倾向，我们观察到连续和远距离知识继承的一致上升。我们表明，知识继承可以揭示有关知识库演化轨迹的学科特征，以及对学术交流的新陈代谢和成熟度的有趣见解。