Multidisciplinary bibliographic databases.

TLDR: The originator of the idea, Eugene Garfield, formulated several critical points in bibliometrics that have shaped citation indexes, for example, libraries with limited funding should be selective about the journals they acquire and a bibliography should selectively cover 'high quality' sources.

Abstract: The past five decades have witnessed the so-called data deluge and publication explosion across all branches of science (1). Numerous academic journals have been launched that use a systematic approach to the submission, peer review, and publishing of information. To facilitate the wide use of published sources, libraries across the world have expanded cataloguing and advanced literature search techniques. The first major step towards indexing academic journals and helping libraries acquire the most influential sources was made by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia, USA, in 1960. The idea behind indexing and distributing information on published articles was to facilitate scientific communication between authors and readers (2). In other words, indexing was proposed as a tool for finding relevant sources of interest to the consumers. The originator of the idea, Eugene Garfield, also the founder of the ISI, formulated several critical points in bibliometrics that have shaped citation indexes, for example, libraries with limited funding should be selective about the journals they acquire; most read and highly cited journals constitute 'quality' sources; highly cited articles influence science; citations from highly-cited journals are weighed more than those from low-cited ones; and a bibliography should selectively cover 'high quality' sources.