Before generative AI, as journals moved online (1998–2005), papers cited more recent work, fewer journals and fewer articles, and concentrated their citations on fewer of them; the author argued that online search “may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon”.

SocioLens project,

Claim LD09-SL-C03 (v1.0)

Provenance and status

Claim type: Estimate
Publication status: Eligible for publication, with a qualifier
Verification state: Checked against the abstract of the primary source only. Who checked this claim is not recorded for it; claim checks so far were AI-led, and no person has checked claims against their sources.
Does not license: Any effect of AI tools; this is a precedent, not evidence about AI
Limitations: Official abstract only; the finding was reportedly disputed at the time (not checked for this version)
Source (as cited): Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008
Source type: Peer-reviewed journal article (recorded as “Peer-reviewed journal article”)
Institutional position: Independent academic (University of Chicago)
Maturity of the evidence: Mature evidence
Recorded date: 15 October 2026
Currentness / correction: This is the current version. No correction or concern is recorded on its sources.

Sources this version cites

Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008 (Peer-reviewed journal article)
Read the original

Version

This page shows version v1.0. Its record never changes, even when newer evidence arrives; the site may add a note to the page or withhold a figure not cleared for public use.

This pinned version is also the current version.

Versions: v1.0 · current

Raw record: every recorded field, with its coded values

All 25 canonical Claim fields, verbatim, with the coded values derived from them. The plain-language labels above are read from these.

Claim type (coded): ESTIMATE (as printed: “ESTIMATE”)
Publication status (coded): ELIGIBLE (QUALIFIED) (as printed: “ELIGIBLE WITH QUALIFIER”)
Verification state (coded): CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY (ABSTRACT_ONLY)
Source type (coded): PEER_REVIEWED_JOURNAL_ARTICLE
Maturity (coded): MATURE

#	Canonical field	Canonical value (verbatim)	Normalized (Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2)
1	CLAIM ID	LD09-SL-C03	—
2	PUBLIC-FACING CLAIM	Before generative AI, as journals moved online (1998–2005), papers cited more recent work, fewer journals and fewer articles, and concentrated their citations on fewer of them; the author argued that online search “may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon”.	—
3	CLAIM TYPE	ESTIMATE	base_types: ESTIMATE
4	RESEARCH STRAND	A — Science and scholarship	—
5	MATURITY	MATURE	states: MATURE
6	SOURCE	Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008	source_ids: SRC-SL-EVANS-SCIENCE-2008
7	SOURCE TYPE	Peer-reviewed journal article	classes: PEER_REVIEWED_JOURNAL_ARTICLE
8	INSTITUTIONAL POSITION	Independent academic (University of Chicago)	—
9	SCOPE	Scholarly citation across science and scholarship, 1945–2005	—
10	DESIGN	Observational analysis of citation patterns as journal issues became available online	—
11	SAMPLE / DATASET	34 million articles	—
12	MODEL / TOOL / VERSION	Not applicable (online availability of journals, not AI)	—
13	COMPARATOR	The same journals before online availability	—
14	MAIN RESULT	Citations became more recent and concentrated on fewer journals and articles as online availability grew	—
15	INFERENTIAL TARGET	Whether a tool that makes search more efficient narrows what scholars build on	—
16	DOES NOT LICENSE	Any effect of AI tools; this is a precedent, not evidence about AI	—
17	VERIFICATION STATE	CONTENT VERIFIED ABSTRACT	state: CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY · qualifiers: ABSTRACT_ONLY · verified_by: UNKNOWN
18	LIMITATIONS	Official abstract only; the finding was reportedly disputed at the time (not checked for this version)	—
19	CONTRADICTORY / SUPPORTING SOURCES	LLM-assisted search associated with broader reading and citing: LD09-SL-C05	—
20	GEOGRAPHY / LANGUAGE	Not checked / English	—
21	DISTRIBUTIONAL LEDGER	Not recorded	—
22	R01 / FIELD-MAP LINKS	LD-09, D3	—
23	WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS CLAIM?	Re-analysis showing that the narrowing reflected database coverage rather than reading behaviour	—
24	PUBLICATION STATUS	ELIGIBLE WITH QUALIFIER	state: ELIGIBLE · qualifiers: QUALIFIED
25	RECORDED DATE	2026-10-15	—

Field 22 references resolved against Field Map v0.2: LD-09 (LIVING_DEBATE); D3 (DOMAIN)

The sources as recorded, with their record IDs and coded source types:

Pinned Sources (field 6, version-specific)

“Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008” → Evans (2008), “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing…” (SRC-SL-EVANS-SCIENCE-2008--v1.0) — Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008; class PEER_REVIEWED_JOURNAL_ARTICLE (explicit public provenance pin)

Cited by Living Debate versions

Individual gain, collective narrowing? Does AI make science, creative work and shared knowledge more alike? (v0.1) LD-09

Cite this page

SocioLens project. (2026, October 15). Before generative AI, as journals moved online (1998–2005), papers cited more recent work, fewer journals and fewer articles, and concentrated their citations on fewer of them; the author argued that online search “may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon” [Claim LD09-SL-C03, version v1.0]. SocioLens. https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld09-sl-c03/v1.0/

@misc{sociolens_ld09_sl_c03_v1_0,
  author = {{SocioLens project}},
  title = {Before generative AI, as journals moved online (1998–2005), papers cited more recent work, fewer journals and fewer articles, and concentrated their citations on fewer of them; the author argued that online search “may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon”.},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-10-15},
  howpublished = {\url{https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld09-sl-c03/v1.0/}},
  note = {Claim LD09-SL-C03, version v1.0}
}

The link points to this version, whose record never changes. For a finding, cite the original study as well: SocioLens summarizes research and does not replace it.

Research-of-record provenance

Materialized by sociolens-materializer 0.6.0 at 2026-09-28T20:00:00.000Z; normalization contract SocioLens — Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2 — Pre-Spike Materialization Contract (v1.0.2). Content seal SHA-256 63d19e2d227dcc87bbaac1aff642f38881e49597a18f6701f366ce9b90679ac5.

Repository-authored inputs (not Drive exports)

SocioLens claim — LD09-SL-C03 v1.0 (v1.0) — written in the SocioLens repository by Project Lead (Claude, AI) on 2026-10-15; no Drive identity exists. Authority: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 15 October 2026 to build the LD-09 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-09 source notes, checked against full texts or official abstracts. Block “ENTRY 03 — LD09-SL-C03” SHA-256 9643da408bb1e424ee5dc71a45f3406565a3df8f04a8df61526b658f7385971b; fixture fixtures/authored/claims/LD09-SL-C03--v1.0.

Builder decisions (not Drive data)

VERSION = v1.0 — basis: Claim version taken from the repository-authored claim fixture version (SocioLens claim — LD09-SL-C03 v1.0); the first version of a new Claim of the LD-09 debate
CURRENT_POINTER = true — basis: repository-authored claim "SocioLens claim — LD09-SL-C03 v1.0" (Project Lead (Claude, AI), 2026-10-15); basis: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 15 October 2026 to build the LD-09 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-09 source notes, checked against full texts or official abstracts
FIELD_6_SOURCE_REFERENCE = SRC-SL-EVANS-SCIENCE-2008--v1.0 — basis: field 6 of ENTRY 03 — LD09-SL-C03 cites "Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008"; the only field-6 segment of this ClaimVersion's repository-authored ledger block.
SOURCE_PROVENANCE_PIN = SRC-SL-EVANS-SCIENCE-2008--v1.0 — basis: explicit version-pinned public provenance of this ClaimVersion (Amendment v1.2 §6): the pinned field-6 Source record "Evans, “Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship,” Science 321, 2008".