Abstract Purpose Using the metaphor of “unicorn,” we identify the scientific papers and technical patents characterized by the informetric feature of very high citations in the first ten years after publishing, which may provide a new pattern to understand very high impact works in science and technology. Design/methodology/approach When we set CT as the total citations of papers or patents in the first ten years after publication, with CT≥ 5,000 for scientific “unicorn” and CT≥ 500 for technical “unicorn,” we have an absolute standard for identifying scientific and technical “unicorn” publications. Findings We identify 165 scientific “unicorns” in 14,301,875 WoS papers and 224 technical “unicorns” in 13,728,950 DII patents during 2001–2012. About 50% of “unicorns” belong to biomedicine, in which selected cases are individually discussed. The rare “unicorns” increase following linear model, the fitting data show 95% confidence with the RMSE of scientific “unicorn” is 0.2127 while the RMSE of technical “unicorn” is 0.0923. Research limitations A “unicorn” is a pure quantitative consideration without concerning its quality, and “potential unicorns” as CT≤5,000 for papers and CT≤500 for patents are left in future studies. Practical implications Scientific and technical “unicorns” provide a new pattern to understand high-impact works in science and technology. The “unicorn” pattern supplies a concise approach to identify very high-impact scientific papers and technical patents. Originality/value The “unicorn” pattern supplies a concise approach to identify very high impact scientific papers and technical patents.

中文翻译：

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识别科技“独角兽”

摘要 目的 使用“独角兽”的比喻，我们识别出在发表后的前十年中具有极高引用率的信息计量特征的科学论文和技术专利，这可能为理解非常高影响力的科学和技术作品提供新的模式。技术。设计/方法/途径 当我们将CT设置为发表后前十年论文或专利的总被引次数，科学“独角兽”CT≥5000，技术“独角兽”CT≥500，我们有一个绝对的标准识别科技“独角兽”出版物。调查结果 我们在 14,301 个中识别出 165 个科学“独角兽”，2001-2012 年，13,728,950 项 DII 专利中的 875 篇 WoS 论文和 224 位技术“独角兽”。大约 50% 的“独角兽”属于生物医学，其中选定的案例单独讨论。稀有的“独角兽”增加遵循线性模型，拟合数据显示 95% 置信度，科学“独角兽”的 RMSE 为 0.2127，而技术“独角兽”的 RMSE 为 0.0923。研究局限 “独角兽”是纯粹的定量考虑，不考虑其质量，论文CT≤5000、专利CT≤500的“潜在独角兽”留待未来研究。实际意义 科技“独角兽”为理解高影响科技作品提供了一种新模式。“独角兽”模式提供了一种简洁的方法来识别非常高影响力的科学论文和技术专利。独创性/价值 “独角兽”模式提供了一种简洁的方法来识别非常高影响力的科学论文和技术专利。