Showing papers in "Scientometrics in 2004"
TL;DR: This study presents a literature review concerning the preciseness of over 170 publications citing the original Lagergren's paper in kinetics equation for solute adsorption on various adsorbents.
Abstract: This study presents a literature review concerning the preciseness of over 170 publications citing the original Lagergren's paper in kinetics equation for solute adsorption on various adsorbents. This equation applies to a range of solid-liquid systems such as metal ions, dyestuffs and several organic substances in aqueous systems onto various adsorbents. The main objectives are to manifest different forms of citations presented and offers a correct reference style for citing the original Lagergren's paper published in 1898.
1,628 citations
TL;DR: The first extensive measurement of the occurrence of Sleeping Beauties in the science literature is reported, derived from the measurements an ‘awakening’ probability function and identified the ‘most extreme Sleeping Beauty so far’.
Abstract: A 'Sleeping Beauty in Science' is a publication that goes unnoticed ('sleeps') for a long time and then, almost suddenly, attracts a lot of attention ('is awakened by a prince'). We here report the -to our knowledge- first extensive measurement of the occurrence of Sleeping Beauties in the science literature. We derived from the measurements an 'awakening' probability function and identified the 'most extreme Sleeping Beauty so far'.
466 citations
TL;DR: The main objective of this paper is to analyse if the number or weight of actors in scientific communication has increased, if patterns of documented scientific communication and collaboration have changed in the last two decades and if these tendencies have inflationary features.
Abstract: Several research studies and reports on national and European science and technology indicators have recently presented figures reflecting intensifying scientific collaboration and increasing citation impact in practically all science areas and at all levels of aggregation. The main objective of this paper is twofold, namely first to analyse if the number or weight of actors in scientific communication has increased, if patterns of documented scientific communication and collaboration have changed in the last two decades and if these tendencies have inflationary features. The second question is concerned with the role of scientific collaboration in this context. In particular, the question will be answered to what extent co-authorship and publication activity, on one hand, and co-authorship and citation impact, on the other hand, do interact. The answers found to these questions have strong implication for the application of bibliometric indicators in research evaluation, moreover, the construction of indicators applied to trend analyses and studies based on medium-term or long-term observations have to be reconsidered to guarantee the validity of conclusions drawn from bibliometric results.
434 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that current nanoscale research reveals no particular patterns and degrees of interdisciplinarity and that its apparent multidisciplinary fields consists of different largely mono-disciplinary fields which are rather unrelated to each other and which hardly share more than the prefix “nano”.
Abstract: This paper first describes the recent development that scientists and engineers of many disciplines, countries, and institutions increasingly engage in nanoscale research at breathtaking speed. By co-author analysis of over 600 papers published in “nano journals” in 2002 and 2003, I investigate if this apparent concurrence is accompanied by new forms and degrees of multi- and interdisciplinarity as well as of institutional and geographic research collaboration. Based on a new visualization method, patterns of research collaboration are analyzed and compared with those of classical disciplinary research. I argue that current nanoscale research reveals no particular patterns and degrees of interdisciplinarity and that its apparent multidisciplinarity consists of different largely mono-disciplinary fields which are rather unrelated to each other and which hardly share more than the prefix “nano”.
387 citations
TL;DR: A new technique is proposed that uses thematic classification (classes and categories) as entities of cocitation and units of measure to demonstrate the viability of this methodology through the representation and analysis of a domain of great dimensions.
Abstract: Our objective is the generation of schematic visualizations as interfaces for scientific domain analysis. We propose a new technique that uses thematic classification (classes and categories) as entities of cocitation and units of measure, and demonstrate the viability of this methodology through the representation and analysis of a domain of great dimensions. The main features of the maps obtained are discussed, and proposals are made for future improvements and applications.
202 citations
TL;DR: This article describes an approach that combines complex network theory, network visualization, and patent citation analysis in order to improve the means for the study of knowledge diffusion.
Abstract: Knowledge diffusion is the adaptation of knowledge in a broad range of scientific and engineering research and development. Tracing knowledge diffusion between science and technology is a challenging issue due to the complexity of identifying emerging patterns in a diverse range of possible processes. In this article, we describe an approach that combines complex network theory, network visualization, and patent citation analysis in order to improve the means for the study of knowledge diffusion. In particular, we analyze patent citations in the field of tissue engineering. We emphasize that this is the beginning of a longer-term endeavor that aims to develop and deploy effective, progressive, and explanatory visualization techniques for us to capture the dynamics of the evolution of patent citation networks. The work has practical implications on resource allocation, strategic planning, and science policy.
168 citations
TL;DR: In a series of seminal studies Robert K. Merton created a coherent theoretical view of the social system of science that includes the salient features of the formal publication system, thereby providing a theoretical basis for scientometrics and citationology.
Abstract: In a series of seminal studies Robert K. Merton created a coherent theoretical view of the social system of science that includes the salient features of the formal publication system, thereby providing a theoretical basis for scientometrics and citationology. A fundamental precept of this system is the view of citations as symbolic payment of intellectual debts. When this concept is merged with a complementary theory of the conceptual symbolism of citations, the possibility for a rapprochement of the normative and constructivist theories is achieved, where the dual function of citations as vehicles of peer recognition and constructed symbols for specific original achievements in science is realized. This new synthesis is embodied in a citation classification system, the citation cube, with dimensions of normative compliance, symbolic consensus, and disinterestedness (self-citation).
166 citations
TL;DR: Qualitative philosophical, sociological, and historical arguments in favor of collaborative research having greater epistemic authority than research performed by individual scientists alone are presented and data from a preliminary longitudinal study of 33 researchers supports the predicted effects.
Abstract: This paper presents qualitative philosophical, sociological, and historical arguments in favor of collaborative research having greater epistemic authority than research performed by individual scientists alone. Quantitatively, epistemic authority is predicted to correlate with citations, both in number, probability of citation, and length of citation history. Data from a preliminary longitudinal study of 33 researchers supports the predicted effects, and, despite the fallacy of asserting the consequent, is taken to confirm the hypothesis that collaborative research does in fact have greater epistemic authority.
162 citations
TL;DR: The results indicate that R&D expenditures were actually not proportional to research productivity or citation counts, and the field of KM might have been evolving an interdisciplinary theory that is developing at the boundaries of scientific disciplines.
Abstract: The present study characterizes the dynamic publication activity of global knowledge management (KM) by data collected through a search restricted to articles in ISI Web of Science.A total of 2727 unique authors had contributed 1407 publications since 1975. The overwhelming majority (2349 or 86%) of them wrote one publication. The productive authors, their contribution and authorship position are listed to indicate their productivity and degree of involvement in their research publications. The sum of research output of the first or responsible authors from USA, UK and Germany reaches 57% of the total productivity. The distribution of articles is rather widespread - they published in 462 titles of serials, spanning 110 Journal Citation Reports subject categories. The higher quality journals make publication of findings more visible. A Pearson's correlation coefficient is statistically found to be significant between citation frequency of article and impact factor of journal, instead of authorship pattern. The results also indicate that R&D expenditures were actually not proportional to research productivity or citation counts. As the subject highly interacts with other disciplines, the field of KM has not yet developed its own body of literature. KM might have been evolving an interdisciplinary theory that is developing at the boundaries of scientific disciplines.
144 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of author self-citations was analyzed aiming at finding basic regularities of selfcitations within the process of documented scientific communication and thus laying the methodological groundwork for a possible critical view at selfcitation patterns in empirical studies at any level of aggregation.
Abstract: The present paper analyses the role of author self-citations aiming at finding basic regularities of self-citations within the process of documented scientific communication and thus laying the methodological groundwork for a possible critical view at self-citation patterns in empirical studies at any level of aggregation The study consists of three parts; the first part of the study is concerned with the comparative analysis of the ageing of self-citations and of non-self citations, in the second part the possible interdependence between self-citations and foreign citations is analysed and in the third part the interrelation of the share of self-citations in all citations with other citation-based indicators is studied The outcomes of this study are two-fold; first, the results characterise author self-citations - at least at the macro level - as an organic part of the citation process obeying rules that can be measured and described with the help of mathematical models Second, these rules can be used in evaluative micro and meso analyses to identify significant deviations from the reference standards
133 citations
TL;DR: New methods concerning the position of highly productive authors in the network are developed and a relationship of distribution of these authors among the clusters in the co-authorship network could be proved to be dependent upon the size of the clusters.
Abstract: The increasing cooperation in science, which has led to larger co-authorship networks, requires the application of new methods of analysis of social networks in bibliographic co-authorship networks as well as in networks visible on the Web. In this context, a number of interesting papers on the “Erdős Number”, which gives the shortest path (geodesic distance) between an author and the well-known Hungarian mathematician Erdős in a co-authorship network, have been published recently. This paper develops new methods concerning the position of highly productive authors in the network. Thus a relationship of distribution of these authors among the clusters in the co-authorship network could be proved to be dependent upon the size of the clusters. Highly productive authors have, on average, low geodesic distances and thus shorter length of paths to all the other authors of a specialism compared to low productive authors, whereas the influencing possibility of highly productive scientists gets distributed amongst others in the development of the specialism. A theory on the stratification in science with respect to the over random similarity of scientists collaborating with one another, previously covered with other empirical methods, could also be confirmed by the application of geodesic distances. The paper proposes that the newly developed methodology may also be applied to visible networks in future studies on the Web. Further investigation is warranted into whether co-authorship and web networks have similar structures with regards to author productivity and geodesic distances.
TL;DR: An analysis of the underlying data for national indicators finds that the average citation rates in major subfields are highly determined by one or only a few highly cited papers, and that the common interpretation of the indicator on research policy level needs to be informed by this fact.
Abstract: Citation distributions are extremely skewed. This paper addresses the following question: To what extent are national citation indicators influenced by a small minority of highly cited articles? This question has not been studied before at the level of national indicators. Using the scientific production of Norway as a case, we find that the average citation rates in major subfields are highly determined by one or only a few highly cited papers. Furthermore, there are large annual variations in the influence of highly cited papers on the average citation rate of the subfields. We conclude that an analysis of the underlying data for national indicators may be useful in creating awareness towards the occurrence of particular articles with great influence on what is normally considered an indicator of “national performance”, and that the common interpretation of the indicator on research policy level needs to be informed by this fact.
TL;DR: The authors show that at the macro level multi-authorship does not result in any exaggerate extent of self-citations, as shown in other bibliometric studies.
Abstract: In recent papers, the authors have studied basic regularities of author self-citations. The regularities are related to the ageing, to the relation between self-citations and foreign citations and to the interdependence of self-citations with other bibliometric indicators. The effect of multi-authorship on citation impact has been shown in other bibliometric studies, for instance, by Persson et al. (2004). The question arises whether those regularities imply any relation between number of co-authors and the extent of author self-citations. The results of the present paper confirm the common notion of such effects only in part. The authors show that at the macro level multi-authorship does not result in any exaggerate extent of self-citations.
TL;DR: The analysis of citation based indicators for 15 fields in the sciences, social sciences and humanities substantiates that at this level of aggregation there is no need for any revision of national indicators and the underlying journal citation measures in the context of excluding self-citations.
Abstract: In a recent paper the authors have studied the role of author self-citations within the process of documented scientific communication. Two important regularities such as the relative fast ageing of self-citations with respect to foreign citations and the “square-root law” characterising the conditional expectation of self-citations for given number of foreign citation have been found studying the phenomenon of author self-citations at the macro level. The goal of the present paper is to study the effect of author self-citations on macro indicators. The analysis of citation based indicators for 15 fields in the sciences, social sciences and humanities substantiates that at this level of aggregation there is no need for any revision of national indicators and the underlying journal citation measures in the context of excluding self-citations.
TL;DR: It is shown how bibliometric data have for the first time been used to allocate 93 million Euro of public research money between 6 Flemish universities for the fiscal year 2003, based on Web-of-Science SCI data provided to “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” via a license agreement with Thomson-ISI.
Abstract: In this paper, we describe the development of a methodology and an instrument to support a major research funding allocation decision by the Flemish government. Over the last decade, and in parallel with the decentralization and the devolution of the Belgian federal policy authority towards the various regions and communities in the country, science and technology policy have become a major component of regional policy making. In the Flemish region, there has been an increasing focus on basing the funding allocation decisions that originate from this policy decentralization on “objective, quantifiable and repeatable” decision parameters. One of the data sources and indicator bases that have received ample attention in this evolution is the use of bibliometric data and indicators. This has now led to the creation of a dedicated research and policy support staff, called “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken,” and the first time application of bibliometric data and methods to support a major inter-university funding allocation decision. In this paper, we analyze this evolution. We show how bibliometric data have for the first time been used to allocate 93 million Euro of public research money between 6 Flemish universities for the fiscal year 2003, based on Web-of-Science SCI data provided to “Steunpunt O&O Statistieken” via a license agreement with Thomson-ISI. We also discuss the limitations of the current approach that was based on inter-university publication and citation counts. We provide insights into future adaptations that might make it more representative of the total research activity at the universities involved (e.g., by including data for the humanities) and of its visibility (e.g., by including impact measures). Finally, based on our current experience and interactions with the universities involved, we speculate on the future of the specific bibliometric approach that has now been adopted. More specifically, we hypothesize that the allocation method now developed and under further improvement will become more criticized if it turns out that it (1) also starts influencing intra-university research allocation decisions and, as a consequence (2) introduces adverse publication and citation behaviors at the universities involved.
TL;DR: The pattern of China"s inter-regional research collaboration (IRRC) is shown, and a new method is used to calculate the expected value matrix based on an observed value matrix of IRRC, which is asymmetric and has no diagonal elements.
Abstract: On the basis of the measured frequency distribution of China"s inter-regional co-authored papers covered by the Chinese Science Citation Database, this paper shows the pattern of China"s inter-regional research collaboration (IRRC), and analyzes how the collaborative pattern was formed. A new method is used to calculate the expected value matrix based on an observed value matrix of IRRC, which is asymmetric and has no diagonal elements. The results fall into three groups. 1) Regional scientific productivity affects both the collaborative preference and ranking of authors" name; 2) geographical proximity is an important factor determining the pattern of IRRC; 3) when using Salton"s measure, regional mean collaborative strength increases as the regional productivity increases, and as the distance between two regions decreases.
TL;DR: The aggregated journal-journal citation matrix of the Journal Citation Report 2001 of the Social Science Citation Index is analyzed as a single domain in terms of both its eigenvectors and the bi-connected components contained in it as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The aggregated journal-journal citation matrix of the Journal Citation Report 2001of the Social Science Citation Indexis analyzed as a single domain in terms of both its eigenvectors and the bi-connected components contained in it. The traditional disciplines (e.g., economics, psychology, or political science) can be retrieved using both methods. These main disciplines do interact marginally. The space between them is occupied by a large number of small clusters of journals indicating specialties that gravitate among the major disciplines. These specialties operate in a mode different from that of the disciplines. For example, the impact factors are low on average and the developments remain volatile. Factor analysis enables us to study how the smaller bi-connected components are related to the larger ones. Factor analysis also highlights methodological differences among groups which may be theoretically connected in a single bi-component.
TL;DR: China, as well as other less developed countries in science, can earn relative competitive advantages in some new emerging or younger disciplines such as computer science by properly using catch-up strategy.
Abstract: The paper compares the research performance in computer science of four major Western countries, India and China, based on the data abstracted from INSPEC database during the period 1993–2002. A total of 9,632 computer science papers recorded in INSPEC database were used for the comparison. The findings indicate that, on the one hand, the number of papers produced in China has considerably increased in the past few years. Particularly, in recent years, China occupies a remarkable high position in terms of counts of papers indexed by the INSPEC database. On the other hand, Chinese scientists preferred to publish in domestic journals and proceedings and shares of SCI-papers to the total journal papers for China have still remained the lowest. This indicates that the research activities of Chinese scientists in computer science are still rather “local” and suffer from a low international visibility. Various scientometric indicators, such as Normalized Impact Factor, ratio of papers in high quality journals are further adopted to analyze research performance and diverse finding are obtained. Nevertheless, for these surrogate indicators, China has optimistically achieved great progress, characterized with “low level of beginning and high speed of developing”. The policy implication of the findings lies in that China, as well as other less developed countries in science, can earn relative competitive advantages in some new emerging or younger disciplines such as computer science by properly using catch-up strategy.
TL;DR: A new modified method for calculating the impact factor of journals based on the current ISI practice in generating journal impact factor values is introduced, the so-called Cited Half-Life Impact Factor (CHAL) method, which is based on a ratio of the number of current year citations of articles from the previous X years to that of articles published in the previous years.
Abstract: This article introduces a new modified method for calculating the impact factor of journals based on the current ISI practice in generating journal impact factor values. The impact factor value for a journal calculated by the proposed method, the so-called Cited Half-Life Impact Factor (CHAL) method, which is based on the ratio of the number of current year citations of articles from the previous X years to that of articles published in the previous X years, the X value being equal to the value of the cited half-life of the journal in the current year. Thirty-four journals in the Polymer Science Category from the ISI Subject Heading Categories were selected and examined. Total citations, impact factors and cited half-life of the 34 journals during the last five years (1997-2001) were retrieved from the ISI Journal Citation Reports and were used as the data source for the calculations in this work, the impact factor values from ISI and CHAL methods then being compared. The positions of the journals ranked by impact factors obtained from the ISI method were different from those from the CHAL method. It was concluded that the CHAL method was more suitable for calculating the impact factor of the journals than the existing ISI method.
TL;DR: A new method of classification of biomedical research journals by research level (RL) into clinical or basic, or somewhere in between, is described that updates the system developed by CHI Research Inc. nearly 30 years ago.
Abstract: A new method of classification of biomedical research journals by research level (RL) into clinical or basic, or somewhere in between, is described that updates the system developed by CHI Research Inc. nearly 30 years ago. It is based on counting articles that have one of about 100 “clinical” title words, or one of a similar number of “basic” title words, or both. It allows over 3000 journals in the Science Citation Index (or other databases) to be classified rapidly and transparently, for changes in their research level with time, and for many individual papers in “mixed” journals to be categorised as clinical or basic.
TL;DR: A bibliometric analysis of the quantitative trend of Patent Ductus Arteriosus treatment research, including intravenous injection of indomethacin and surgery, indicated that either treatment was not the recent emphasis of PDA research.
Abstract: A bibliometric analysis was performed to assess the quantitative trend of Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) treatment research, including intravenous injection of indomethacin and surgery. The documents studied were retrieved from the Science Citation Index (SCI) for the period from 1991 to 2002. The publication pattern concerning authorship, collaboration, original countries, citation frequency, document type, language of publication, distribution of journals, page count and the most frequently cited papers were performed. The results indicated that either treatment was not the recent emphasis of PDA research. The publishing countries of both treatments have also denoted that these researches were mostly done in Europe and North America. Both surgery and drug treatments had few international collaboration papers. English was the dominant language, and collaboration of two to six authors was the most popular level of co-authorship.
TL;DR: The SARS publication pattern in the past few months suggests immediate citation, low collaboration rate, and English and mainstream country domination in production.
Abstract: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has become the major of health issues since its outbreak early 2003. No analyses by bibliometric technique that have examined this topic exist in the literature. The objective of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of all SARS-related publications in Science Citation Index (SCI) in the early stage. A systematic search was performed using the SCI for publications since SARS outbreak early 2003. Selected documents included 'severe acute respiratory syndrome' or 'SARS' as a part of its title, abstract, or keyword from the beginning stage of SARS outbreak, March till July 8, 2003. Analysis parameters included authorship, patterns of international collaboration, journals, language, document type, research institutional address, times cited, and reprint address. Citation analysis was mainly based on impact factor as defined by Journal Citation Reports(JCR) issued in 2002 and on the actual citation impact (ACI), which has been used to assess the impact relative to the whole field and has been defined as the ratio between individual citation per publication value and the total citation per publication value. Thirty-two percent of total share was published as news features, 25% as editorial materials, 22% as articles, 13% as letters, and the remaining being biographic items, corrections, meeting abstracts, and reprints. The US dominated the production by 30% of the total share followed closely by Hong Kong with 24%. Sixty-three percent of publication was published by the mainstream countries. The SARS publication pattern in the past few months suggests immediate citation, low collaboration rate, and English and mainstream country domination in production. We observed no associations of research indexes with the number of cases.
TL;DR: The purpose was to characterize these links in order to gain a better understanding why links are created and to characterize the interlinkage between the eight Israeli universities.
Abstract: Links analysis proved to be very fruitful on the Web. Google's very successful ranking algorithm is based on link analysis. There are only a few studies that analyzed links qualitatively, most studies are quantitative. Our purpose was to characterize these links in order to gain a better understanding why links are created. We limited the study to the academic environment, and as a specific case we chose to characterize the interlinkage between the eight Israeli universities.
TL;DR: Link count to a company's website was found to correlate with the company's revenue, profit, and research and development expenses, suggesting that Web hyperlinks to commercial sites can be a business performance indicator and thus a source of business information.
Abstract: Websites of China's top 100 information technology (IT) companies were examined. Link count to a company's website was found to correlate with the company's revenue, profit, and research and development expenses. This suggests that Web hyperlinks to commercial sites can be a business performance indicator and thus a source of business information. This information is useful for Web business intelligence and Web data mining. As a comparison to IT companies, China's top 100 privately owned companies were also studied. No relationship between link count and the business performance measure was found for these companies due probably to the heterogeneous nature of this group. Data collection issues for webometrics research were also explored in the study.
TL;DR: It is suggested that the problem of assigning papers resulting from multi-lateral collaboration to the contributing research groups has not yet been solved properly, and that more research is needed into the influence of a department's state of development and personnel structure upon the values of bibliometric indicators.
Abstract: In a bibliometric study of nine research departments in the field of biotechnology and molecular biology, indicators of research capacity, output and productivity were calculated, taking into account the researchers' participation in scientific collaboration as expressed in co-publications. In a quantitative approach, rankings of departments based on a number of different research performance indicators were compared with one another. The results were discussed with members from all nine departments involved. Two publication strategies were identified, denoted as a quantity of publication and a quality of publication strategy, and two strategies with respect to scientific collaboration were outlined, one focusing on multi-lateral and a second on bi-lateral collaborations. Our findings suggest that rankings of departments may be influenced by specific publication and management strategies, which in turn may depend upon the phase of development of the departments or their personnel structure. As a consequence, differences in rankings cannot be interpreted merely in terms of quality or significance of research. It is suggested that the problem of assigning papers resulting from multi-lateral collaboration to the contributing research groups has not yet been solved properly, and that more research is needed into the influence of a department's state of development and personnel structure upon the values of bibliometric indicators. A possible implication at the science policy level is that different requirements should hold for departments of different age or personnel structure.
TL;DR: The question as to which extent one can transfer co-authorship analysis to patent data is raised, which is based on the similarities between scholarly papers and patents.
Abstract: Co-authorship analysis is a well-established tool in bibliometric analysis. It can be used at various levels to trace collaborative links between individuals, organisations, or countries. Increasingly, informetric methods are applied to patent data. It has been shown for another method that bibliometric tools cannot be applied without difficulty. This is due to the different process in which a patent is filed, examined, and granted and a scientific paper is submitted, refereed and published. However, in spite of the differences, there are also parallels between scholarly papers and patents. For instance, both papers and patents are the result of an intellectual effort, both disclose relevant information, and both are subject to a process of examination. Given the similarities, we shall raise the question as to which extent one can transfer co-authorship analysis to patent data.
TL;DR: Whether broadly similar results would occur if solely Web data was used rather than all available bibliometric co-authorship data is examined to examine to which extent collaboration structures visible in the Web change their shape in the same way as bibliographic collaboration networks over time.
Abstract: The emerging influence of new information and communication technologies (ICT) on collaboration in science and technology has to be considered. In particular, the question of the extent to which collaboration in science and in technology is visible on the Web needs examining. Thus the purpose of this study is to examine whether broadly similar results would occur if solely Web data was used rather than all available bibliometric co-authorship data. For this purpose a new approach of Web visibility indicators of collaboration is examined. The ensemble of COLLNET members is used to compare co-authorship patterns in traditional bibliometric databases and the network visible on the Web. One of the general empirical results is a high percentage (78%) of all bibliographic multi- authored publications become visible through search of engines in the Web. One of the special studies has shown Web visibility of collaboration is dependent on the type of bibliographic multi-authored papers. The social network analysis (SNA) is applied to comparisons between bibliographic and Web collaboration networks. Structure formation processes in bibliographic and Web networks are studied. The research question posed is to which extent collaboration structures visible in the Web change their shape in the same way as bibliographic collaboration networks over time. A number of special types of changes in bibliographic and Web structures are explained.
TL;DR: Using identities for 28 authors in several disciplines of science and scholarship, it is shown that the reputational counts of their citees always have an approximately log-normal distribution: citations to very famous names are roughly balanced by citations to obscure ones, and most citations go to authors of middling reputation.
Abstract: A citation identity is a list of an author's citees ranked by how frequently that author has cited them in publications covered by the Institute for Scientific Information. The same Dialog software that creates identities can simultaneously show the overall citation counts of citees, which indicate their reputations. Using identities for 28 authors in several disciplines of science and scholarship, I show that the reputational counts of their citees always have an approximately log-normal distribution: citations to very famous names are roughly balanced by citations to obscure ones, and most citations go to authors of middling reputation. These results undercut claims by constructivists that the main function of citation is to marshal “big-name” support for arguments at the expense of crediting lesser-known figures. The results are better explained by Robert K. Merton's norm of universalism, which holds that citers are rewarding use of relevant intellectual property, than by the constructivists' particularism, which holds that citers are trying to persuade through manipulative rhetoric. A universalistic citation pattern appears even in Alan Sokal's famous hoax article, where some of his citing was deliberately particularistic. In fact, Sokal's basic adherence to universalism probably helped his hoax succeed, which suggests the strength of the Mertonian norm. In specimen cases, the constructivists themselves are shown as conforming to it.
TL;DR: A formula that assigns relative values to each author of the list in any publication according to the authors' relative positions can and often should be used as an additional criterion in the processes of evaluating relative scientific productivity, detecting experts in a given discipline, etc.
Abstract: We have developed a formula that assigns relative values to each author of the list in any publication according to the authors' relative positions. The formula satisfies several criteria of theoretical and practical significance. We tested the formula's validity and usefulness with bibliographical references from the INSPEC database, mainly from the physical sciences. Enforced alphabetical sorting, different names of single authors and other statistical disturbances are accounted for. Our results demonstrate that our formula, or any other that satisfies several objective and quantitative criteria, can and often should be used as an additional criterion in the processes of evaluating relative scientific productivity, detecting experts in a given discipline, etc.
TL;DR: The formulation of the model is examined using the seminal sources and an integrative review using retrieved empirical studies exposes the complexity and diversity of models of scientific growth and the absence of consistent patterns.
Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the general model of scientific growth proposed by D. J. de Solla Price. Firstly, the formulation of the model is examined using the seminal sources. Later, forerunners, offshoots and criticisms to the model are discussed. Finally, an integrative review using retrieved empirical studies exposes the complexity and diversity of models of scientific growth and the absence of consistent patterns.