Beginner's Charm: Beginner-Heavy Teams Are Associated With High Scientific Disruption
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866910144674136064 |
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| author | Kamal, Mahdee Mushfique Baten, Raiyan Abdul |
| author_facet | Kamal, Mahdee Mushfique Baten, Raiyan Abdul |
| contents | Teams now drive most scientific advances, yet the impact of absolute beginners -- authors with no prior publications -- remains understudied. Analyzing over 29 million articles published between 1941 and 2020 across disciplines and team sizes, we uncover a near-universal and previously undocumented pattern: teams with a higher fraction of beginners are systematically more disruptive and innovative. Their contributions are linked to distinct knowledge-integration behaviors, including drawing on broader and less canonical prior work and producing more atypical recombinations. Collaboration structure further shapes outcomes: disruption is high when beginners work with early-career colleagues or with co-authors who have disruptive track records. Although disruption and citations are negatively correlated overall, highly disruptive papers from beginner-heavy teams are highly cited. These findings reveal a ``beginner's charm'' in science, highlighting the underrecognized yet powerful value of beginner fractions in teams and suggesting actionable strategies for fostering a thriving ecosystem of innovation in science and technology. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_10389 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Beginner's Charm: Beginner-Heavy Teams Are Associated With High Scientific Disruption Kamal, Mahdee Mushfique Baten, Raiyan Abdul Digital Libraries Social and Information Networks Teams now drive most scientific advances, yet the impact of absolute beginners -- authors with no prior publications -- remains understudied. Analyzing over 29 million articles published between 1941 and 2020 across disciplines and team sizes, we uncover a near-universal and previously undocumented pattern: teams with a higher fraction of beginners are systematically more disruptive and innovative. Their contributions are linked to distinct knowledge-integration behaviors, including drawing on broader and less canonical prior work and producing more atypical recombinations. Collaboration structure further shapes outcomes: disruption is high when beginners work with early-career colleagues or with co-authors who have disruptive track records. Although disruption and citations are negatively correlated overall, highly disruptive papers from beginner-heavy teams are highly cited. These findings reveal a ``beginner's charm'' in science, highlighting the underrecognized yet powerful value of beginner fractions in teams and suggesting actionable strategies for fostering a thriving ecosystem of innovation in science and technology. |
| title | Beginner's Charm: Beginner-Heavy Teams Are Associated With High Scientific Disruption |
| topic | Digital Libraries Social and Information Networks |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10389 |