From what I've seen, the average number of citations for papers published in the previous year is something like 0.3. A significant proportion are never cited.

From what I've seen, the average number of citations for papers published in the previous year is something like 0.3. A significant proportion are never cited. Most people give no shit about most papers. The fact that even the shittest publication will be reviewed by a handful of experts, even though most people will never read the paper, is as good as you're gonna get imo.