Apart from the fundamental scientific advances of the breakthrough
papers, there is an hierarchy of classes of lesser
papers, along the lines of those which — • Confirm or deny the main thrust of a breakthrough
paper by arriving from other angles • Provide an alternative or improvement to the main findings of breakthrough
papers • Contribute more observation to the breakthrough
paper and discuss its relevance • Seek to set a complementary base for a breakthrough in a related aspect of science • Report the views of a clutch of
authors about a topic they
deem to have political importance • Ditto for educational importance • Write
papers that are knowingly lacking good science to place
authors in one camp or another • Lambast an
author or
authors for being on the «wrong» side of a polarised topic • Perform meta analysis Etc..