The Memory of Science: Inflation, Myopia, and the Knowledge Network.

•The total number of citations is growing annually by 5.6% and doubling every 12 years.•The growth of science impacts fundamental properties of the science citation network.•Both very recent and very old literature are being cited less and less.•We developed & tested a generative citation network model.•We simulate and analyze the impact of shifts in citing behavior on the citation network.