The Citation Culture
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The Citation Culture Paul Wouters The Citation Culture ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. J. J. M. Franse ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op dinsdag 9 maart 1999, te 15.00 uur door Paulus Franciscus Wouters geboren te Amsterdam i Voor Thomas en Marije In herinnering aan Jan ii Promotor: prof. dr. S. S. Blume Co-promotor: dr. R. P. Hagendijk Faculteit der Scheikunde c Paul Wouters Contents Voorwoord ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction ................................ 1 1.2 Citingcultures............................... 2 1.3 Unintended consequences of being cited . 3 1.4 An objective representation of science . 5 1.4.1 Representation . 5 1.4.2 The SCI .............................. 5 1.5 The quest for a citation theory . 8 1.6 The reference and the citation . 10 1.7 The citation representation of science . 12 1.8 Representing scientometrics . 14 2 The creation of the Science Citation Index 17 2.1 Mixedreception.............................. 17 2.2 Enthusiasm for citation . 22 2.2.1 Shepard’s . 22 2.2.2 Adair . 23 2.2.3 Computers . 26 2.2.4 Patents . 29 2.3 The citation introduced to science . 30 2.3.1 Science ............................... 30 2.3.2 Propaganda . 32 2.3.3 Allen . 34 2.3.4 A World Brain . 38 2.3.5 Lederberg . 39 2.3.6 Re-establishing communication . 41 2.3.7 Growing support . 46 2.3.8 Delay . 47 2.3.9 Submission . 49 2.3.10 The genetics proposals . 53 2.3.11 Convincing NSF and NIH . 55 iii CONTENTS iv 3 The building of the Science Citation Index 59 3.1 Buildingtheindex ............................ 59 3.1.1 Political design . 59 3.1.2 Technical design . 70 3.2 Translating the citation concept . 73 3.2.1 Automation . 73 3.2.2 Comprehensiveness . 74 3.2.3 The information crisis . 75 3.2.4 Computers . 77 3.2.5 Innovative outsiders . 77 3.2.6 Success as well as failure . 77 4 The science of science 79 4.1 Welcoming the SCI ............................ 79 4.2 Roots .................................... 82 4.3 The science of science in Russia, the Ukraine, and the Soviet Union 84 4.3.1 Naukovedeniye . 84 4.3.2 Naukometria . 87 4.3.3 The Moscow branch . 87 4.3.4 The Kiev branch . 91 4.3.5 Two different styles . 93 4.4 Westernscienceofscience . 93 4.5 “Please reply with more data” . 96 4.6 The citation sociologically used . 97 4.7 The citation sociologically explained . 103 5 The signs of science 107 5.1 Introduction . 107 5.2 Basic properties of the citation . 108 5.3 Producing citations . 110 5.3.1 The quality of the reference . 111 5.3.2 The selection of reference . 112 5.3.3 The integrity of the inversion . 114 5.4 Building upon the citation . 115 5.4.1 The Price Index . 115 5.4.2 The Impact Factor . 115 5.4.3 Co-citation clustering . 116 5.4.4 Normalization procedures . 123 5.5 Other signs of science: co-word analysis . 126 5.6 A maze of indicators . 128 6 Rating science 131 6.1 Introduction . 131 6.2 Early Dutch science policy . 135 6.3 Scientometrics within a funding body . 137 6.4 Emerging Dutch science studies . 139 6.5 Science studies for policy . 141 CONTENTS v 6.6 Indicators for policy . 143 6.6.1 Research evaluation explored . 144 6.6.2 The RAWB medical research project . 146 6.6.3 RAWB’s indicator policy . 160 6.6.4 Ministerial support for an observatory . 163 7 Scientometrics 167 7.1 Introduction . 167 7.2 Collection and organization of the data . 168 7.3 General features . 169 7.4 Has Price’s dream come true? . 172 7.4.1 Method . 172 7.4.2 Results . 174 7.5 Who’s Who in scientometrics? . 177 7.6 Does scientometrics have its own identity? . 177 7.6.1 Method . 177 7.6.2 Results . 181 7.7 What is scientometrics’ position? . 191 7.8 Has scientometrics developed a specific language? . 192 7.8.1 Method . 192 7.8.2 Results . 192 7.9 Conclusion . 193 8 Representing science 195 8.1 Introduction . 195 8.2 Summary of the results so far . 195 8.3 A hybrid specialty . 198 8.4 Indicators as translators . 198 8.4.1 Science as an information cycle . 198 8.4.2 Interactions between the cycles . 202 8.4.3 Credibility cycles . 204 8.4.4 Implications of the citation cycle . 204 8.5 Paradigmatic versus formalized representations . 206 8.5.1 Two representational domains . 206 8.5.2 Two concepts of information . 207 8.6 Indicator theories . 210 8.7 The rise of the formalized . 212 Samenvatting 215 ISI Press Release 219 The Weinberg report on citation indexing 221 Note on archives and interviews 222 .1 Archives ..................................222 .2 Interviews .................................222 CONTENTS vi Listings of PERL software used in this thesis 223 .1 .......................................223 .2 .......................................225 .3 .......................................227 .4 .......................................228 .5 .......................................229 .6 .......................................232 .7 .......................................232 .8 .......................................233 .9 .......................................236 .10 . 239 .11 .......................................240 .12 . 242 .13 . 246 .14 . 247 .15 . 248 .16 . 251 .17 . 251 .18 . 252 .19 . 254 .20 . 255 .21 . 260 List of Figures 2.1 The citation index example Garfield presented in Science. 32 2.2 Gordon Allen’s citation network as depicted in Garfield (1960a). The circled numbers represent published articles. The arrows indi- cate citing relations, pointing from the citing to the cited document. 54 2.3 First lines of the example of the actual appearance of a printed SCI as included in the proposals to NIH and NSF. 55 3.1 Lederberg’s SCITEL proposal. 68 7.1 The number of publications per year. 170 7.2 The number of publications per author in relation to the number of authors.................................... 170 7.3 The number of publications per institution in relation to the num- berofinstitutions.............................. 171 7.4 The number of citations in relation to the number of cited authors. 171 7.5 The number of authors in relation to the number of articles. 172 7.6 The number of co-publishing institutions in relation to the number ofarticles. ................................. 173 7.7 The value of the Price Index per year, Price’s method . 175 7.8 The distribution of the Price Index over the articles, Moed’s method 176 7.9 The age of cited articles relative to their citing articles in relation.