Does academic breakthrough lean on the shoulders of giants? A bibliometric investigation of social science

The purpose of this research is to test the classic aphorism attributed to Isaac Newton as who has seen farther, that is because he stood on the shoulders of giants. We test the aphorism by investigating academic research in social science, including economics & business, social sciences general, and psychiatry/psychology. We first argue that if an article is developed on a previous work then some articles relating to this work should be also cited. Then we show that academic breakthrough is more likely to happen, if it is developed on highly cited articles, which is defined as the top 1% articles based on citations. Moreover, we show that citing highly cited articles but not developed on them do not help academic breakthrough.