摘要：Sleeping beauties (SBs) in science have been known for few decades; however, it seems that only recently have they become popular. An SB is a publication that “sleeps” for a long time and then almost suddenly awakes and becomes highly cited. SBs present interesting findings in science. Pediatrics research literature has not yet been analyzed for their presence, and 5 pediatrics SBs were discovered in this research. Their prevalence was approximately 0.011%. Some environments or periods are more “SB fertile” than others: 3 of 5 SBs were published in the journal Pediatrics, 4 originated from the United States, and 4 were published in the period from 1992 to 1993. No institutions or authors published more than 1 SB. Sleeping beauties (SBs) in science have been known for few decades; however, it seems that only recently a paper published in Nature [ 1 ] popularized this phenomenon to the wider scientific community. An SB is a publication that goes unnoticed (sleeps) for a long time and then almost suddenly turns out to be interesting (awakens) and become highly cited. SBs present interesting findings in science, and their specific characteristics makes searching for them “not just an exotic whim, but a necessity in order to have an answer to Mendel-like claims” [ 2 ]. Among other disciplines, SBs have been found in physics, chemistry, metallurgy, and statistics [ 3 ], but pediatrics research literature has not yet been analyzed for their presence.
