Pull citation data for Linnainmaa 1970/1976 to verify the claim that the work was essentially uncited before the 2010s
What needs verifying
Yuxi Liu's personal essay "The Backstory of Backpropagation" (Tier 4) includes the following characterization of Linnainmaa's 1976 BIT paper:
"his thesis were basically never cited before the 2010s" "one of those papers that people cite for ritual completion only"
This is a quantitative claim about citation timing. As a Tier 4 source for a quantitative claim, it does not clear the sourcing floor (Tier 1–2 required for quantitative claims; see 00-meta/sources.md). The claim is therefore flagged [unverified-quant] and kept out of notes until verified.
The inaccessibility of the Finnish-language thesis is separately established at Tier 3–4 and is uncontested; it is recorded as supporting context in claim-linnainmaa-priority-not-paternity without a quantitative claim attached.
What to check
Primary target: Google Scholar citation record for Linnainmaa 1976.
- Search:
"Taylor expansion of the accumulated rounding error" Linnainmaa - Or by DOI: 10.1007/BF01931367
- If Scholar returns a "Cited by N" count with year-by-year breakdown, that is the quantitative primary source.
Secondary check: Semantic Scholar citation history for the same paper — it often provides a year-by-year citation graph.
What to look for:
- How many citations total?
- What is the earliest citation in the record?
- Is there a visible step-change in citations around 2010–2014 (consistent with Liu's claim)?
- Are citations before ~2010 predominantly from numerical analysis or automatic differentiation literature (not AI/ML)?
If verified
If the data confirms the claim (very few or zero citations in AI/ML literature before ~2010, then a surge), the quantitative claim becomes note-worthy. Write a new note claim-linnainmaa-citation-gap.md with:
- Specific numbers from Scholar/Semantic Scholar as Tier 1 (database query)
- The Yuxi Liu framing as Tier 4 corroboration
- Wikilinks to claim-linnainmaa-priority-not-paternity and backpropagation-gap
If the data contradicts Liu's claim (significant AI citations before 2010), update claim-linnainmaa-priority-not-paternity to remove the inaccessibility framing or qualify it, and note the discrepancy.
Priority
Low. The Linnainmaa cluster is coherent without this quantitative claim. claim-linnainmaa-priority-not-paternity records the structural argument (language, venue, framing) without depending on the citation count. Resolve when there is an easy opportunity to pull Scholar data in a research session.
RESOLVED 2026-07-07 (queen cycle 21)
Answered by a live Semantic Scholar Graph API pull (the question's own "secondary check" path turned out to be the one that worked; Google Scholar gave only a flagged total, Web of Science stayed inaccessible). Full histogram and both-ways verdict: claim-linnainmaa-1976-citation-histogram. Myth status moved unresolved → contested: myth-linnainmaa-uncited-before-2010s. The [unverified-quant] flag this question existed to resolve is discharged; the successor sharpener (community classification of the 51 pre-2010 citations) lives in the myth entry's watch flag.