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"A reference graph is a web of citations: paper A cites papers B and C, B cites C and D, C cites D, and so on."

A bit off topic, but where is the computer generated version of this graph. This was the inspiration to Googles Page Rank algorithm, right? We do have Google Search and even Google Scholar now. But where can I access this gigantic graph of published research?

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That's what CiteSeer was supposed to do, unfortunately they quit halfway there.

So, what you are saying is, that it doesn't exist? Why is no one building this? I understand, that there is less demand than for web search. But there still is a lot of demand from smart and skilled people, no?

It's a question of academic paywalls. If all journal papers were freely available it would have been done by now.

Thx for your reply. Makes sense. Other than abstracts, the reference are usually behind a pay wall.

But how does, e.g. Google Scholar estimate the number of citations? Do they only look at papers which are not behind a pay wall or do they buy a subscription to all journals?

It still buggles my mind, that the science loving google founders Larry and Brian haven't tackled this yet.

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