the most respected journals do not hesitate to use impact fac- Deeds and Dreams of tors in their advertising. IH: In The Chemical Intelligencer, there were a couple of papers Eugene Garfield comparing the impact factors of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Ange- wandte Chemie [2, 31. It was al- leged that the of Dr. Eugene Garfield (b. 1925) is President and Editor-in-Chief of The Angewandte Chemie was over- Scientist, a biweekly professional newspaper, which he founded, and inflated because it is published in the original German and in Chairman Emeritus of the Institute for Scienttfic Information (ISI), an English translation edition. (CC) . He is probably best known for Current Contents The people at Angewandte and (SCI). Dr. Garfield instituted an infor- Chemie were rather unhappy mation revolution in scienttfic research. He received a B.S. in chem- about these papers because they thought that Angewandte istry in 1949 and an M.S. in library science in 1954, both from Chemie should have a higher , and a Ph.D. in structural linguisticsji-on the impact factor for the very rea- University of Pennsylvania in 1961. He was President of Eugene son that it carries reviews in ad- Garfield Associates from 1954 to 1960 and President and CEO of the dition to research papers. EG: I think these allegations are Institute for Scienttfic Information from 1960 to 1992. He has pub- overstated. The analysis is not lished numerous books and articles on scienttfic as simple as it is made to seem. and related topics. We recorded our conversation in Dr. Garfield’s There is some inflation in the home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on March 7,1999. impact factor due to dual cita- tion of both editions. But the ISTVAN HARGITTAI (IH): You intro- can’t imagine how you would journal’s self-citation only rep- duced evaluate the impact of my resents about lo-15% of the ci- and changed the way scientists work. How would you measure tations that it receives. Un- are employed, professors at it? The Internet is having an doubtedly, these disputes universities are given tenure, impact but how would you indicate that there is more cita- and research journals are measure it? When we talk tion consciousness among edi- judged for their quality. This is about intellectual impact, it is tors and publishers today. heavy stuff. The Sputnik in very subjective-economic im- In the studies that I did in 1957 had a tremendous impact pact is another thing. the past, citation analysis “ex- on American science. Is there Nevertheless, I do find it posed” the political of anything comparable to your hard to keep up with the large East European science acade- impact worldwide? literature involving journal im- mies-many academicians EUGENE GARFIELD (EG): Thanks for pact factors. I am especially were administrators, not the pleasant hyperbole but if frustrated that I can’t respond world-class scientists. That was there is any truth to the state- to the portion containing mis- true also in some other Euro- ment, I’m not acutely conscious statements or misuses. There is pean countries. In Italy, the SC1 of it. Of course, CC and SC1 are much controversy about the va- was like salvation to some sci- widely used, but I don’t hear lidity of impact factors, which entists even though it did not people say much about it. If you are used for many purposes. As immediately correct the unfair use SC1 especially for evalua- you have implied, SCI and Jour- allocation of credit and re- tive purposes, you don’t adver- nal Citation Reports (JCR) data sources. It called attention to tise it. If the SC1 is used in have become institutionalized. the disparities in funding and tenure evaluations, hopefully it People often criticize the im- publication. There are still is done intelligently. I de- pact factor because it is so per- many politically based science scribed this in an essay on fac- vasive. Editors, especially of decisions-who gets tenure, . ulty evaluation [I], one of my new journals, are using JCR to who gets research funding, most popular. Undoubtedly, demonstrate how quickly their money, and so forth. The Ital- this use of citation analysis is journals are accepted or ians started using the SC1 data due to the paucity of objective whether they measure up to the over 20 years ago, not only to data for such evaluations. I best-known journals. Some of measure citation impact but

26 THE CHEMICAL INTELLIGENCER 01999 SPRING R-VERLAG NEW YORK, INC. Eugene Garfield during simply to determine if particu- the conversation. lar grantees had published any papers in peer-reviewed jour- (Photo by I. Hargittai.) nals. The younger scientists re- sent the power of the old guard, who continue to get the money. The younger ones publish in reputable journals and do sig- nificant research. So there is no doubt that SCI had some effect, in particular in Europe. In those days, I don’t think we had that much of a problem in the United States. There may not have been enough money available, but, in general, our peer-review system is not near- ly as politicized. The use of cita- tion data in Italy led to the pub- lication of an interesting monograph [4]. I’m curious as to of what ef- fect SCI had in Israel. Gideon Czapski, a Professor of Chem- istry at Hebrew University, has made an extensive citation analysis of Israeli science, es- pecially in chemistry [5]. Nev- ertheless, he likes to point out that one of his papers [6] is rarely cited because it dis- proved a theory that was inves- ately emasculated certain pro- he nor anyone else has used co- tigated heavily. There is no jects. We had started The Atlas citation mapping to produce an need to continue citing the of Science and later changed its international encyclopedia of proof that a theory is wrong. name to Research Reviews. We science. Systematic examina- Falsification in science is also used the results of our global tion of the literature is neces- important. However, I don’t co-citation analyses to identify sary to identify what is not be- think he disagrees with the the newly emerging research ing reviewed. idea that citation frequency is fronts that needed to be re- I’m on the Board of Direc- associated with creativity, but it viewed. We published several tors of the nonprofit Annual Re- is always important to note that volumes. JPT, the new part- views, which produces about 30 there are exceptions. Some im- ners, killed it because it still annual review volumes in print portant discoveries are not was not profitable, and it might and online each year. They matched with high citation. have taken five years for it to have not used citation data as And false ones, like cold fusion, break even. It would have been yet. Their methods for choosing may be cited heavily but they an encyclopedic treatment of topics are purely subjective- are the exception. In general, current science. There are, of not that that is bad, just differ- Nobel-class work is accompa- course, plenty of review articles ent. Their editorial boards are nied by significantly higher ci- published. The Current Opin- top-notch. Derek Price used to tation, as we demonstrated ion series, published by Vitek say that for every 50 new pa- over 30 years ago. And every Tracz, came out later. He is a pers in each field, you need a Nobelist has published one or brilliant Polish-Russian-Israeli review, which then becomes more Citation Classics. scientist who now lives in Lon- the paper that people cite as a IH: You have brought many of don. His company, Current Sci- surrogate for those references. your ideas to fruition. Have there ence, also is located in One could do an interesting been any that did not happen? Philadelphia. He understood historical mapping based on EG: Sure. When I sold ISI, new the mapping concept very well the network of review papers. management almost immedi- but, to my knowledge, neither So, returning to your original

OCTOBER 1999 27 sidered the unit of scientific publication the article, not the journal. How much impact did Bernal have on you? EG: On the Internet we now have a preprint depository in physics and other topics. That was essentially what Bernal had in mind. He gave a paper in 1958 at the Information Confer- ence on Scientific Information in Washington. That’s where I met him for the first time. My uncles were Marxists. One of them gave me Bernal’s book The Social Function of Sci- ence in 1939 when I was 14 years old. It may have had some influence on me. But it was not until 1951 that I realized that he was involved in the “science of science” movement, the prede- Catheryn and Eugene Garfield question, there are a lot of velop citation consciousness. cessor of and in their home. things I wanted to do that have I’m not sure how you teach this. science policy studies. He was not happened. I wanted to pub- It requires indoctrination by in- involved in the 1947 Royal Soci- (Photo by I. Hargittai.) lish a constantly current dictio- formed mentors. ety Scientific Information Con- nary of science. What could be a I also wanted to use IS1 Press ference. The Proceedings vol- better source of new terms than to launch a systematic series of ume was my bible when I the IS1 database? There is con- scientific biographies. It would worked at Johns Hopkins from stant input of new terminology. have been an extension of our Ci- 1951 to 1953. My interest, how- The nomenclature from index- tation Classics series. We pub- ever, was in information re- ing services is not systematical- lished 4000 of those in Current trieval, not in research evalua- ly being exploited to compile Contents, and 2000 were reprint- tion. Bernal was a Nobel-class dictionaries. Libraries spend a ed in a series of books called scientist who might have re- lot of energy compiling the- Contemporary Classics in Science ceived more recognition for his sauri. Most of those terms even- [ISI Press: Philadelphia, 1986]. science if he had not been so tually do get into dictionaries, We could have easily pub- openly leftist. His politics un- but it could take many years. lished many more thousands of doubtedly affected his influ- I would also like to see the Citation Classics. And there are ence. In 1962, when we had the finished for creating always more recent ones to be first experimental printouts of historiographs. The Citation In- covered. A systematic series of SCI from the Genetics Citation dex is a gold mine for the histo- biographies could include not Index, I sent samples to him, ry of science. Mapping all the only most-cited authors and Robert K. Merton, and Derek key references for a given top- members of the academies. deSolla Price. He responded ic, you should be able to graph- Josh Lederberg was a strong very positively as did Bob and ically portray the development supporter of this idea. The Na- Derek. of a field. My brother, Ralph tional Academy of Sciences IH: Looking back, was there Garner, wrote a graph theoreti- publishes their Memoirs, but anything in your family back- cal description of such net- they appear only after mem- ground that steered you in the works [7]. And there has been bers die. In addition to mono- direction of your future career? some recent work done on vi- graphic autobiographies and EG: There were political discus- sualizing citation networks [8]. biographies, I thought a journal sions with my uncles but not I find it very frustrating that of scientific biography would much science. Only one of my so many scientists are ignorant also be an interesting project. uncles finished college. At first, of what they could do with in- IH: Early on, you had a meeting I attended a science high formation retrieval systems. I with J. D. Bernal. He was very school, Stuyvesant, but I left for think it is important not only to much concerned with the ways a variety of reasons. I had no be literature-minded, but to de- of science publishing. He con- real mentors there and

28 THE CHEMICAL INTELLIGENCER throughout high school. We When I was an undergraduate only time we would see him lived in the Bronx, and in college, none of my profes- was at my grandmother’s house Stuyvesant High School was a sors had a significant impact. At on Friday night. He was a suc- long subway ride to lower 17, I started out in chemical en- cessful ladies’ coat and suit downtown Manhattan. And I gineering at the University of manufacturer. wanted to study more foreign Colorado, but it was wartime, On my mother’s side, they languages. So I transferred to so I left soon for San Francisco, were Lithuanian . I’m not DeWitt Clinton High School in worked in a shipyard, and sure about my father’s parents. I the Bronx. Except for math, I eventually was drafted even once heard that they came from was not a good student in high though I had been accepted for Galicia. Garfield is not my origi- school. My grades were not ex- the merchant marine. After the nal name. It was the name of my ceptional. I still was interested war, I returned to Berkeley. father’s firm, the Garfield News in science and I wonder what Classes were huge but I did en- Company. My father opposed might have happened if I had counter famous chemists like my changing my name but my stayed at Stuyvesant. My regret Joel Hildebrand and Melvin uncle forced the issue since they is that I didn’t encounter a sci- Calvin. But I was a premed stu- had had a long, bitter rivalry. entist or teacher there who dent at that time and switched My stepfather was a butcher could have steered me in the to chemistry later. and later drove his own taxi- right direction. And Stuyvesant IH: What did your parents do? cab. He was an Italian immi- was very competitive. EC: My mother was a housewife. grant, so we were a nondenom- In my last year at Clinton, I My father became a successful inational family. I was never met an English teacher and for- newspaper-magazine distribu- bar mitzvahed. My half-brother mer journalist, Wilmer T. tor, but I never lived with my Ralph was born when I was 12. Stone, who gave me some di- father. My parents separated IH: There is a lot of change go- rection. Almost 10 years after I before I was born and shortly ing on in journal publishing: graduated, I visited him in afterward were divorced, when the American Chemical Society Maryland, where he had re- my sister Sylvia was 2 years old. is bringing out new journals tired, but he really didn’t want I was 5 years old when I saw my and the European chemical so- to be bothered. Of course, I was father for the first time. And cieties are consolidating their not his child, just one of many then, again, four or five years national journals. students to whom he had de- later. Our relationship is a long EG: Science is still growing so scribed his experiences as a and sad story. My mother’s old- there’s more capacity for journal free-lance journalist interview- est brother became my surro- growth. Inevitably, there is twig- ing Jack London, among oth- gate but absentee father. My ging of journals to accommodate ers. He taught in high school uncle helped support us, but he new fields. because of the depression. never was there in person. The IH: You have written about the

Eugene Garfield relaxing after the interview. (Photo by M. Hargittai.)

OCTOBER 1999 29 connection between publishing, across his message? The ques- age readership was tenfold that impact, and the Nobel Prize. tion is, to what extent does a number. Some copies were EG: It became an interesting scientist sell his ideas? The read by hundreds of people in game. But I never tried to pre- word “sell” is not usually used, Eastern Europe and China, dict who would win the prize. It but that’s part of it. Scientists all where they also copied it. was more relevant to suggest have to get their ideas across to When I went to Eastern Europe the fields that might be recog- fellow scientists. Consider the and elsewhere, people respect- nized. We might have predicted SC& for instance. It didn’t hap- ed me because I did not attempt a prize for nitric oxide. Certain- pen just by itself. Long after I to criticize their political sys- ly, among those names would published my 1955 paper in Sci- tems. I used citation data to be Salvador Moncada. Monca- ence, I had to publish dozens of demonstrate the relative da was certainly among the articles and give hundreds of strengths of their science. I did- most-cited authors. Nobel talks. I became a propaganda n’t have to tell them what they prizewinners are almost invari- machine. Merton described this knew. Rather, I provided them ably well cited. The Nobel very well in his Foreword to my a window on the rest of the Committee didn’t include him, book Citation Indexing [9]. It is world. Since Current Contents and it has created a lot of con- the same with scientific ideas. was just a bibliographical tool, troversy. I’m not suggesting I’m awfully curious to know the Russian censors did not that the committees should se- what was missing in the Mon- touch my essays. They allowed lect on the basis of citation cada affair. my essays to go through. Of analysis, but they should be In the case of the Japanese, course, I was proselytizing aware of the most cited scien- their problem often is that they about citation indexing and not tists for each field considered. don’t learn to speak English capitalism. Many people still The same thing happened to well. So they are at a disadvan- think that I’m writing those Moncada for the Lasker Award. tage at conferences. At least in weekly essays. Recently, I met a Something odd is going on the past, the Japanese authori- senior scientist who said that there. I Iind it very strange that ties didn’t insist that scientists he loved my essays and read members of many lesser prize learn to speak and write Eng- them every week! I wrote the committees prefer to choose lish, from an early age. If Japan last one six years ago. Maybe Nobel laureates. Why not pick wants to have its fair share of he’s thinking of my occasional someone who hasn’t been so recognized scientists, they have editorials in The Scientist. In visibly recognized. 7 I have to emphasize good linguistic fact, many people don’t know fought this battle many times. skills. A lot of good work in that The Scientist has not been Most award committees like to Japan is probably underappre- an IS1 publication for 10 years. play it safe. I think awards ciated because they are so timid IH:Do you have any children? should go to people for whom about promoting their ideas, es- EG:I have a 52-year-old son, Ste- the award would make a signif- pecially to authoritative figures. fan, who is a crane operator. My icant career difference. Why IH:Would you care to single out second son, Joshua, 40 years give a lesser prize to Nobel lau- what you consider to be the most old, graduated in marine biolo- reates? They’ve already had the important thing you have done? gy but is now a computer scien- highest recognition. But there EG: To many people, Current tist. Both live in Florida. I had will always be exceptions even Contents had the most perva- two daughters, Laura and Thea. to that generalization. sive influence. Current Con- Laura is 41, but I don’t hear IH: Speaking about publishing, tents is a ridiculously simple from her. My younger daughter sometimes people complain idea. Curiously, there has nev- committed suicide 20 years ago. that they cannot get their mes- er been a scholarly article writ- I have a stepdaughter, Cornelia, sage through. ten about Current Contents. But who lives in Philadelphia and EG: Hans Selye said that to get it is still the model that has we visit regularly. From my his general adaptation syn- been adopted and copied. Its third marriage, I have a 14- drome accepted, he published simplicity is what made it so year-old son, Alexander Mer- everywhere and over and over. successful. You say that I have a ton, who is a violinist and a He didn’t care if he repeated his strong influence on science. good student in math and sci- message. But take an opposite Well, for a 25year period I had ence. My wife, Catheryn, origi- example, Eiji Osawa in Japan, a captive audience worldwide. nally taught biology. Then she who had the basic idea of what The readership was larger than got an information science de- later became known as buck- that of Science or Nature. The gree and worked at IS1 as a lec- minsterfullerene. Did he do number of printed copies was turer. Eventually, she became what he should’ve done to get as high as 40,000, but the aver- Vice President but left IS1 after

30 THE CHEMICAL INTELLIGENCER we sold the company to Thom- graduating that year. I intro- Reprinted in Essays of an information son. We have been married for duced Zelig Harris to the field Scientist, Vol. 6; ISI Press: Philadelphia; 16 years. of information retrieval. Within 1984; pp. 354-362. (http://www. the- IH: How would you formulate a few months, he had a half a scientist. library. upenn. edu/eugene_garf the lessons to be learned from million dollar grant from the ie/d/essays/v6p354yl983.pdt) ; (b) your career? National Science Foundation. Garfield, E. “How to Use Citation Analy- EG: Too often, people are afraid I had started my doctoral sis for Faculty Evaluations, and When Is of failure. They worry that they program at Columbia but It Relevant? Part 2,” Current Contents cannot manage financially. couldn’t get my interdiscipli- 1983, No. 45, 5-I 4. Reprinted in Es- Money never drove me; it came nary committee to meet. So I says of an Information Scientist, Vol. 6; to me. Nevertheless, if I had left and subsequently made a ISI Press: Philadelphia, 1984; pp worried about money, I might deal with Professor Harris. He 363-372. http://www. the-scientist. never have achieved financial agreed that I could transfer my library. upenn. edu/eugene - garfie/d/ success. I don’t know what ac- credits and do my dissertation essays/v6p363y1983.pdf counts for this quality of persis- in chemical linguistics. My task 2. Braun, T.; Gltinzel, W. “The Sweet tence. My mother never was to create an algorithm for and Sour of Citation Rates,” The Chem- stopped until she finished the translating chemical nomencla- ical lntelligencer1995, I(l), 31-32. task at hand. You learn a cer- ture into molecular formulas 3. Van Leeuwen, T. N.; Moed, H. F.; tain doggedness. I grew up using a computer. Today it Reedijk, J. “JACS Still Topping Ange- working. When I was 9, I was seems ridiculously simple but wandte Chemie: Beware of Erroneous delivering orders in a grocery in those days it seemed impossi- Impact Factors,” The Chemical Intel/i- store and worked in a laundry ble. That’s how I got my degree gencer1997, 3(3), 32-36. for hours just to earn a quarter. in the linguistics department. It 4. Spiridione, G.; Calza, L. /I Peso De//a Later, I went to work for my un- was as much a chemistry topic Qualita Accademica [The Weight of Aca- cles. I delivered orders in my as structural linguistics. Allan demic Quality]; Cooperativa Libraria Ed- Uncle Lou’s liquor store. Then I Day, Chair of Chemistry, was a itrice Universita di Padova: Padua, worked in the garment district great help to me. 1995. after school and summers. Later on, I taught at Penn in 5. Czapski, G. “The Use of Deciles of the Maybe that was another reason the electrical engineering school. Citation Impact to Evaluate Different that I didn’t do that well in high I gave a course in inforrnation re- Fields of Research in Israel,” Sciento- school. I certainly enjoyed the trieval for computer and informa- metrics 1997, 40(3), 437-443. work but realized I didn’t want tion science graduate students. 6. Czapski, G. “Radical Yield as a Func- to remain in the garment busi- Many of them worked on Depart- tion of pH and Scavenger Concentra- ness, much as my uncle Sam ment of Defense contracts involv- tion,” Adv. Chem. 1968,87, 106-130. would have liked me to. ing information retrieval. 7. Garner, R. “A Computer Oriented, IH: How did your Ph.D. happen IH: Do you keep track of cita- Graph Theoretic Analysis of Citation In- to be in structural linguistics? tions of your own work? dex Structures.” In Flood, B., Ed.; Three EG: I got my B.S. in chemistry EG: I have received a weekly Drexel Information Science Research from Columbia. I had a good printout for over 30 years, which Studies Garner, R.; Lunin, L.; Baker, L. friend who was working on me- lists every paper that cites my Drexel Press: Philadelphia, 1967; pp chanical translation of Russian work. Because of my essays in l-43. at Georgetown University. I Current Contents, I am probably (http://1 65.123.33.33/eugene - gariie/d/r was supposed to join him there. the most self-cited person in the garner.pdf) However, I was broke and had world. There are still quite a few 8. Mackinlay, J. D.; Rao, R.; Card, S. K. to support my son. I got side- papers published that cite my “An Organic User Interface for Search- tracked by some people from papers and books, but lately im- ing Citation Links,” presented at CHI Smith Kline and French. I met pact factors are very popular. Conference on Human Factors and them when I was at Johns Hop- I’ve posted almost all my work Computing Systems, Denver, May kins. They offered me a con- full-text on my web site 7-l 1,1995. sulting job to set up a punch [http://165.123.33.33/eugene - (http://turing.acm. org/sigchi/chi95/ card system on thorazine. garfield] and that’s a good place proceedings/papers/jdm - bdy. htm# That’s why I came to Philadel- to end. colorpla te I) phia in 1954. My friend Casimir 9. Merton, R. K. Foreword to: Garfield, Borkowski later came to REFERENCES E. Citation Indexing: Its Theory and Ap- Philadelphia to get his Ph.D. 1.(a) Garfield, E. “How to Use Citation plication in Science, Technology, and under Zelig Harris, the chair- Analysis for Faculty Evaluations, and Humanities; ISI Press: Philadelphia, man of structural linguistics at When Is It Relevant? Part 1,” Current 1979; pp v-ix. (http://l65.123.33.33/ Penn. Noam Chomsky was Contents 1983, No. 44, p. 5-13. eugene_garfie/d/cifwd. html)

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