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Cited by 81scientometrics and bibliometrics researchCreativity in Education and NeuroscienceComplex Network Analysis Techniques

Understanding the onset of hot streaks across artistic, cultural, and scientific careers

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Liu, Lu, Dehmamy, Nima, Chown, Jillian, Giles, C. Lee, Wang, Dashun·2021·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-25477-8PMC PMC8438033
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Abstract

Across a range of creative domains, individual careers are characterized by hot streaks, which are bursts of high-impact works clustered together in close succession. Yet it remains unclear if there are any regularities underlying the beginning of hot streaks. Here, we analyze career histories of artists, film directors, and scientists, and develop deep learning and network science methods to build high-dimensional representations of their creative outputs. We find that across all three domains, individuals tend to explore diverse styles or topics before their hot streak, but become notably more focused after the hot streak begins. Crucially, hot streaks appear to be associated with neither exploration nor exploitation behavior in isolation, but a particular sequence of exploration followed by exploitation, where the transition from exploration to exploitation closely traces the onset of a hot streak. Overall, these results may have implications for identifying and nurturing talents across a wide range of creative domains.

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  • LLM use could shift the balance between exploration and exploitation in scientific funding, pulling proposals toward the center of existing funding patterns and potentially narrowing the diversity of ideas that are submitted for or receive public support.

    “In this way, LLM use could shift the balance between exploration and exploitation in scientific funding, pulling proposals toward the center of existing funding patterns and potentially narrowing the diversity of ideas that are submitted for or receive public support, even as it may lower the barriers to producing competitive applications (30, 37).”

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Liu, L., Dehmamy, N., Chown, J., Giles, C. L., & Wang, D.
Affiliations
  • Northwestern University (US)
  • Pennsylvania State University (US)
Corresponding author
Wang, Dashun
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2021-09-13
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
5392-5392
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-021-25477-8
PMC
PMC8438033
OpenAlex
W3134958513
Cited by
81
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 2
FWCI
7.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Funders
United States Department of Defense | United States Air Force | AFMC | Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-15-1-0162, FA9550-17-1-0089, FA9550-19-1-0354)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
Keywords
hot streaks, creative careers, exploration-exploitation balance, artistic career, scientific careers, film directors, creative output, career paths, talent identification, style diversity

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