# Prestige drives epistemic inequality in the diffusion of scientific ideas

**Authors:** Allison C. Morgan, Dimitrios J. Economou, Samuel F. Way, Aaron Clauset  
**arXiv:** [1805.09966](https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.09966)  
**Date:** 2018-05-25  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/1805.09966v2/

## Key points

- Spread of ideas in the scientific community is competitive, with good ideas gaining more traction
- Limited understanding of how structural factors influence idea dissemination and origin's impact on spread
- Study focuses on faculty hiring networks in computer science and their role in idea diffusion
- Comprehensive data analyzed from 205 Ph.D.-granting departments involving 5032 faculty members
- Examined five research topics to demonstrate faculty hiring's role in spreading ideas
- Research originating from prestigious institutions spreads more rapidly and extensively than similar quality work from less prestigious institutions
- Faculty hiring drives persistent epistemic advantage among elite institutions
- Structural inequality influences idea dissemination, highlighting impact on epistemic inequality within academia

## Summary

In the scientific community, the spread of ideas is often seen as a competitive process, with good ideas gaining more traction due to their inherent quality and the recognition they receive through publication and citation counts. However, there is limited understanding of how structural factors influence the dissemination of ideas and specifically how the origin of an idea affects its spread. This study focuses on faculty hiring networks in computer science and investigates how they shape the diffusion of ideas, as well as the significance of where an idea originates within this network. The researchers analyze comprehensive data on faculty hiring events at 205 Ph.D.-granting departments of computer science in the U.S. and Canada, involving 5032 faculty members. They also consider information on the timing and titles of 200,476 associated publications. By examining five popular research topics, they empirically demonstrate that faculty hiring plays a role in facilitating the spread of ideas in science. Building upon this finding, the researchers employ epidemic models to simulate the generic spread of research ideas and assess how the origin location within the network impacts long-term diffusion across it. The results reveal that research originating from prestigious institutions spreads more rapidly and extensively compared to work of similar quality originating from less prestigious institutions. These findings establish a theoretical relationship between university prestige and idea quality necessary for efficient circulation. Furthermore, this study establishes faculty hiring as a fundamental mechanism driving persistent epistemic advantage observed among elite institutions. It also highlights how structural inequality influences the dissemination of ideas in science by providing a theoretical lower bound for its impact. Overall, this research provides valuable insights into how structural factors such as faculty hiring networks contribute to shaping the spread of ideas in computer science. It sheds light on the trade-offs between university prestige and idea quality required for effective circulation while emphasizing potential consequences related to epistemic inequality within academia.