“An Introduction to the Theory of Citing”, 2007-01-03 (; backlinks; similar):
Statistical analysis of repeat misprints in scientific citations leads to the conclusion that about 80% of scientific citations are copied from the lists of references used in other papers.
Based on this finding a mathematical theory of citing is constructed.
It leads to the conclusion that a large number of citations does not have to be a result of paper’s extraordinary qualities, but can be explained by the ordinary law of chances.