From the science of science to Scientometrics visualizing the history of science with HistCite software

Eugene Garfield

Journal of Informetrics, 2009, vol. 3, issue 3, 173-179

Abstract: While ISSI was founded in 1993, Scientometrics and Bibliometrics are now at least half a century old. Indeed, the field can be traced to early quantitative studies in the early 20th century. In the 1930s, it evolved to the “science of science.” The publication of J.D. Bernal's Social Function of Science in 1939 was a key transition point but the field lay dormant until after World War II, when D.J.D. Price's books Science Since Babylon and Little Science, Big Science were published in 1961 and 1963. His role as the “Father of Scientometrics” is clearly evident by using the HistCite software to visualize his impact as well as the subsequent impact of the journal Scientometrics on the growth of the field. Scientometrics owes its name to V.V. Nalimov, the author of Naukometriya, and to Tibor Braun who adapted the neologism for the journal. The primordial paper on citation indexing by Garfield which appeared in Science 1955 became a bridge between Bernal and Price. The timeline for the evolution of Scientometrics is demonstrated by a HistCite tabulation of the ranked citation index of the 100,000 references cited in the 3000 papers citing Price.

Keywords: History of Scientometrics; Etymology of Scientometrics; Derek J.D. Price; V.V. Nalimov; J.D. Bernal; Science of science; HistCite; Algorithmic; Historiography; Bibliometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (79)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:3:y:2009:i:3:p:173-179

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2009.03.009

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