On the Mortality of Cited Works, Cited Authors, and Writing Authors in Sociology

In this study I take a demographic perspective, analyzing age and mortality of books and articles which are cited, the authors that receive citations, and the authors writing the citations in the full published volumes of 73 sociology journals. I give a new operationalization of dates of deathβ for cited authors and cited works, as well as dates of rebirthα and document risk of death0.1 across the life course for cited works, cited authors, and writing authors in these journals. I report the top 1% cited works and cited authors, and on their untimely deaths. I discuss why sociologists should study sociology’s past and provide a Python package knowknow for replication and extension of these findings.