>It would be more surprising if citations and usefulness were anti-correlated in some way. I have definitely seen some highly cited and influential papers over

>It would be more surprising if citations and usefulness were anti-correlated in some way. I have definitely seen some highly cited and influential papers overstay their welcome and hold the field back. That's not to say they didn't propel the field forward when they were initially published, just that their overbearing influence causes us to stick to a paradigm that is no longer producing results. "Science progresses one funeral at a time" and all that.