Cumulation of knowledge in a specialty

[Steven Morris]

The level of activity on this list in the last few days has been dizzying....

I am wondering if anyone knows of any studies that compare
literatures of different specialties or fields on the basis of their
'cumulation of knowledge'.

For example: medical and engineering fields quickly build up bodies
of knowledge on a topic, this knowledge is relatively undisputed
after an short shake-out period and researchers build on this
knowledge to further advance the topic. Compare to fields like
psychology where the topics are rehashed over and over and the
knowledge doesn't seem to cumulate very much.

Are there any papers out there that describe the phenomenon of
cumulation of knowledge and how that cumulation is manifested in
journal literature?

Has anyone studied this in terms of Kuhnian paradigms?  For
example,  maybe a specialty with cumulating knowledge is in a state
of paradigmatic "puzzle solving", and a specialty that doesn't
cumulate knowledge is in a "pre-paradigm" state.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone that has any ideas on the topic, or
can point me to some relevant papers.

Thanks kindly,

Steven Morris
Oklahoma State University