Reward or persuasion? The battle to define the meaning of a citation

Tue Feb 10 21:58:27 EST 2009

Phil,

As evidence that Eugene Garfield's primary aim was not history but management (of the scientific literature, then science), see the following article. Note that this article is dated 1966. It is a nice piece of evidence, and needs to be considered alongside Eugene's own story or recalling of history that you have cited.

I. H. Sher and E. Garfield (1966), New Tools for Improving and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Research, in M. C. Yovits et al. (eds.), Research Program Effectiveness, New York: Gordon and Breach, pp. 136-146

Benoît Godin

Professeur, INRS (Montreal)

Tel.: 1 (514) 499 4074

<blocked::mailto:ubenoit.godin at ucs.inrs.ca> email: benoit.godin at ucs.inrs.ca <blocked::mailto:benoit.godin at ucs.inrs.ca> 

website: http://www.csiic.ca

________________________________

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of Phil Davis
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 8:35 PM
To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] Reward or persuasion? The battle to define the meaning of a citation

In reading the literature, I found two very distinct camps: one arguing from the Mertonian view that citations reflect a type of reward in the form of public recognition, and the other suggesting that citations were no more than rhetorical devices for bolstering one's argument.  The reward camp is well known by people on this list. The persuasion literature is found more in the Science and Technology Studies journals, and for the most-part, is ignored by the reward camp.  There are some who try to reconcile both arguments, and I try to do this in the article (see attached).

I've received some personal correspondence that I've completely misunderstood Eugene Garfield and his intentions for creating an index based on the citation literature.  In his writings, I saw a compelling argument from the perspective of the historian of science.  I was working entirely from the literature, and did not conduct any interviews with Dr. Garfield.  If I have misunderstood his rationale(s) for the citation index, the confusion is entirely mine.

--Phil Davis

B.G. Sloan wrote: 

I hadn't really thought a lot about defining the meaning of a citation as being "reward OR persuasion."

After thinking a bit about how I use citations I think I fall in the "reward AND persuasion" camp rather in either the "reward" OR "persuasion" camps.

When I write papers I use citations as a rhetorical device, which falls into the "persuasion" category. When I track citations to my papers I tend to view them as indicators of quality or impact, which falls into the "reward" category.

Bernie Sloan

Sora Associates

Bloomington, IN

--- On Mon, 2/9/09, Eugene Garfield <garfield at CODEX.CIS.UPENN.EDU> <mailto:garfield at CODEX.CIS.UPENN.EDU>  wrote:

	From: Eugene Garfield <garfield at CODEX.CIS.UPENN.EDU> <mailto:garfield at CODEX.CIS.UPENN.EDU> 
	Subject: Davis, PM (Davis, Philip M.) Reward or persuasion? The battle to define the meaning of a citation LEARNED PUBLISHING, 22 (1): 5-11 JAN 2009
	To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
	Date: Monday, February 9, 2009, 12:30 PM

	Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
	http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html

	E-mail Address: pmd8 at cornell.edu 

	Author(s): Davis, PM (Davis, Philip M.)

	Title: Reward or persuasion? The battle to define the meaning of a 
	citation 

	Source: LEARNED PUBLISHING, 22 (1): 5-11 JAN 2009 

	Language: English 

	Document Type: Article 

	KeyWords Plus: SCIENCE; QUALITY; NATIONS; IMPACT; MODEL; TOOL 

	Abstract: The history and development of the Science Citation Index (SCI) 
	is an ex(example of the power of users in defining and influencing the 
	development of a new technology. The SCI was developed as a tool for the 
	historian of science for the purpose of tracing die history of ideas, but 
	it was appropriated by users for purposes for which it was unintended - as 
	a tool for evaluating the literature, individuals, institutions, and 
	countries. The development of a citation tool gave rise to a debate over 
	what is actually measured by citation. The citation-was-reward camp views 
	citations as indicators of quality and impact, whereas the citation-as-
	persuasion. oil camp views citations as no more than rhetorical devices. 
	While neither view call fully explain how authors use citations, citation-
	as-reward prevails as the (dominant interpretation. 

	Addresses: Cornell Univ, Dept Commun, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA 

	Reprint Address: Davis, PM, Cornell Univ, Dept Commun, 336 Kennedy Hall, 
	Ithaca, NY 14853 USA. 

	E-mail Address: pmd8 at cornell.edu 

	Cited Reference Count: 41 

	Times Cited: 0 

	Publisher: ASSOC LEARNED PROFESSIONAL SOC PUBL 

	Publisher Address: SOUTH HOUSE, THE STREET WORTHING, W SUSSEX BN13 3UU, 
	ENGLAND 

	ISSN: 0953-1513 

	DOI: 10.1087/095315108X378712 

	29-char Source Abbrev.: LEARN PUBL 

	ISO Source Abbrev.: Learn. Publ. 

	Source Item Page Count: 7 

	Subject Category: Information Science & Library Science 

	ISI Document Delivery No.: 389TM 

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	STEWART JA
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-- 
Philip M. Davis
PhD Student
Department of Communication
301 Kennedy Hall
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
email: pmd8 at cornell.edu
phone: 607 255-2124
https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/~pmd8/resume 
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