In Note-8 in the supplementary materials, Greenberg begins to quantify the problem. He defines an amplification measure for paper P as the number of citation-paths originating at P and terminating at all other papers, except for paths of length 1 flowing directly to primary data papers. The amplification density of a network is the mean amplification across its papers.
Greenberg then finds that, in the particular network analysed, you can achieve amplification density of about 1000 over a 15 year time-frame. This density grows exponentially with a doubling time of very roughly 2 years.
This might be an interesting pointer.
In Note-8 in the supplementary materials, Greenberg begins to quantify the problem. He defines an amplification measure for paper P as the number of citation-paths originating at P and terminating at all other papers, except for paths of length 1 flowing directly to primary data papers. The amplification density of a network is the mean amplification across its papers.
Greenberg then finds that, in the particular network analysed, you can achieve amplification density of about 1000 over a 15 year time-frame. This density grows exponentially with a doubling time of very roughly 2 years.