White HD, Wellman B, Nazer N "Does citation reflect social structure? Longitudinal evidence from the "Globenet" interdisciplinary research group" JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 55 (2): 111-126 JAN 15 2004

[Eugene Garfield]

Howard White : Howard.Dalby.White at drexel.edu

TITLE     Does citation reflect social structure? Longitudinal evidence
          from the "Globenet" interdisciplinary research group
AUTHOR    White HD, Wellman B, Nazer N
JOURNAL   JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE
          AND TECHNOLOGY 55 (2): 111-126 JAN 15 2004

Document type: Article     Language: English     Cited References: 36
Times Cited: 0      Explanation

Abstract:
Many authors have posited a social component in citation, the consensus
being that the citers and citees often have interpersonal as well as
intellectual ties. Evidence for this belief has been rather meager,
however, in part because social networks researchers have lacked
bibliometric data (e.g., pairwise citation counts from online databases),
and citation analysts have lacked sociometric data (e.g., pairwise measures
of acquaintanceship). In 1997 Nazer extensively measured personal
relationships and communication behaviors in what we call "Globenet," an
international group of 16 researchers from seven disciplines that was
established in 1993 to study human development. Since Globenet's membership
is known, it was possible during 2002 to obtain citation records* for all
members in databases of the Institute for Scientific Information. This
permitted examination of how members cited each other (intercited) in
journal articles over the past three decades and in a 1999 book to which
they all contributed. It was also possible to explore links between the
intercitation data and the social and communication data. Using network-
analytic techniques, we look at the growth of intercitation over time, the
extent to which it follows disciplinary or interdisciplinary lines, whether
it covaries with degrees of acquaintanceship, whether it,reflects
Globenet's organizational structure, whether it is associated, with
particular in-group communication patterns, and whether it is related to
the cocitation of Globenet members. Results show cocitation to be a
powerful predictor of intercitation in the journal articles, while being an
editor or co-author is an important predictor in the book. Intellectual
ties based on shared content did better as predictors than content-neutral
social ties like friendship. However, interciters in Globenet communicated
more than did noninterciters.

KeyWords Plus:
HYBRID PROBLEM AREA, SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION, SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,
ORGANIZATION, DYSLEXIA, AUTHORS, MODEL, TIES

Addresses:
White HD, Drexel Univ, Coll Informat Sci & Technol, Philadelphia, PA 19104
USA
Drexel Univ, Coll Informat Sci & Technol, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
Univ Toronto, Ctr Urban & Community Studies, NetLab, Toronto, ON M5S 2G8,
Canada
Bell Canada Enterprises, Toronto, ON, Canada

Publisher:
JOHN WILEY & SONS INC, 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030 USA

IDS Number:
754UX

ISSN:
1532-2882