Do you have any memories that would be fascinating for someone else to read about in one hundred years? or even ten?
Wow, as a professor and researcher this is a question that comes across in my mind on a regular basis. Is the knowledge that I am providing the world worth the paper I am writing it on or the breath I am teaching it with. I can and have spent years collecting data on certain topics to gain a new perspective on a problem. Will that perspective however, mean anything to anyone but me? I would like to think that it does.
In my case, I can track a little bit about how my knowledge is being transferred over time and space. The first article I ever was written in 2003 (published in 2004). It was entitled, The Role of Rural Shopping in Canadian Domestic Travel Behaviour. Since its publication, it has according to Google Scholar been cited 26 times most recently in a book entitled, Tourism Business Frontiers (published is 2012). In total, since 2004, my work has been cited 140 times (see chart below for a year by year analysis).
Does that mean that my work could be considered fascinating? Well you would have to ask the people citing the work that question. Am I memorable? Well I am close to 10 years in, so if someone cites my shopping article in 2014, it means I made it 10 years right? The question then arises, can any of the ideas in these papers make it to 100 years? In an article I am working on at the moment, I have cited a paper form 1952 (the oldest I have ever cited). That means that knowledge has lasted 60 years. Do I have any ideas that will stand the test of time? Hopefully I will be around to know the answer to this question.
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