Paper details
Citation Culture – The Way from Citation Index to Scientometrics
Author
Milan Špála, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Documents to download
Abstract
The need for greater accountability of scientifc researchers has created a
number of new professions. The scientometrician in one of these experts. They
measure science scientifically, often on behalf of science policy officials.
Their creation is intimately linked to the invention of the Science Citation
Index (SCI) by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia (USA).
The Citation Culture argues that the development of scientometriccs can best be
understood if we analyze this field as both indicator and embodiment of a recent
emerged subculture in science: The Citation Culture (c. c.). This subculture has
unwittingly and subtly changed core concepts od modern science such as
scientific quality and influence. It has moreover contributed to the
transformation of the very essence of science policy, This study tries to
explore the possible meaning of the c. c. for the systematic generation of
knowledge.
Today, a scientific publication is easily recognized by its references to other
scientific articles or books. The overall citing properties of the publication
within certain field chare the same characteristics. The historical development
of scientific publishing since the nineteenth century has provided for a fairly
stable ensemble of citing culture in science.
The gradual development of regular citing behavior in scientific publishing
created a new resource for research as well as policy: citation data. If
researchers cite the work they find useful often cited work is apparently more
useful to scientist than work which receives hardly any citation at all.
Therefore, citation frequency seems a good way of objectively measuring
scientific usefulness, quality, or impact. Therefore, citation analysis – the
art of measuring numbers of citations – provides a window onto the
communication processes between scientists.
Author's professional CV
Graduated at Charles Universtiy Medical Faculty in Prague, MD (1956), PhD (1963); Associated Professor of Pathophysiology / Experimental medicine at Charles University First Medical Faculty (1988); Dept. of Pathophysiology at Charles University First Medical Faculty (1956–1995); Visiting Professor and Head of Dept. of Pathophysiology at Université d´Oran (Algeria) (1970–1974); Associated Professor of Pathophysiology / Experimental medicine at the Chair of general biology, Faculty of Biology, Southbohemian University, České Budějovic (2003–2005), founder of the Institute of Scientific Information – Head of Dept. (1995–2001), Research Specialist (2001– ); Member of Charles University Editorial Board and First Medical Faculty editorial Board (1965 – 2003), Editor in Chief of „Sborník lékařský“ – Multidisciplinary biomedical journals of the First Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague (1991 – 2003).
