Reward or persuasion? The battle to define the meaning of a citation
Jean-Claude Guédon
jean.claude.guedon at UMONTREAL.CA
Wed Feb 11 07:18:02 EST 2009
For the early history of SCI, Paul Wouters' The Citation Culture cannot
be avoided, IMHO (U. of Amsterdam doctoral thesis, n.d.[1999]).
He also has an article in a festschrift written in the honour of E.
Garfield. (The Web of Knowledge (ASIS, 2000)): "Garfield as Alchemist".
Jean-Claude Guédon
Le mardi 10 février 2009 à 21:58 -0500, Godin, Benoît a écrit :
> Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
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>
> 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
>
>
> email: benoit.godin at ucs.inrs.ca
>
>
> website: http://www.csiic.ca
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>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
> 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>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> From: Eugene Garfield <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
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> 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
>
> AKRICH M
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>
> BALDI S
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>
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>
> BROOKS TA
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>
> CHUBIN DE
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>
> COLE J
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> AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST 6 : 23 1971
>
> COLE JR
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>
> COZZENS SE
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> SCIENTOMETRICS 15 : 437 1989
>
> CRONIN B
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>
> CRONIN B
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>
> DIAMOND AM
> WHAT IS A CITATION WORTH
> JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES 21 : 200 1986
>
> FRANCK G
> Scientific communication - A vanity fair?
> SCIENCE 286 : 53 1999
>
> GARFIELD E
> METRIC SCI ADVENT SC : 354 1978
>
> GARFIELD E
> CITATION INDEXING FOR STUDYING SCIENCE
> NATURE 227 : 669 1970
>
> GARFIELD E
> SCI PUBL POLICY 19 : 321 1992
>
> GARFIELD E
> CITATION ANALYSIS AS A TOOL IN JOURNAL EVALUATION - JOURNALS CAN BE RANKED
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> SCIENCE 178 : 471 1972
>
> GARFIELD E
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> SCIENTOMETRICS 1 : 359 1979
>
> GARFIELD E
> USE CITATION DATA WR : 1964
>
> GILBERT GN
> REFERENCING AS PERSUASION
> SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 7 : 113 1977
>
> GRAFIELD E
> SCIENCE 122 : 108 1955
>
> HAGSTROM WO
> SCI COMMUNITY : 304 1965
>
> HAMILTON DP
> PUBLISHING BY - AND FOR QUESTIONABLE - THE NUMBERS
> SCIENCE 250 : 1331 1990
>
> HICKS D
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>
> KAPLAN N
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>
> KING DA
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> NATURE 430 : 311 DOI 10.1038/430311a 2004
>
> KLINE R
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>
> LATOUR B
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>
> LINDSEY D
> SCI PUBLICATION SYST : 169 1978
>
> LUUKKONEN T
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>
> MAY RM
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>
> MEADOWS AJ
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>
> MERTON RK
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>
> MERTON RK
> J LEGAL POLITICAL SO 1 : 115 1942
>
> MERTON RK
> MATTHEW EFFECT IN SCIENCE
> SCIENCE 159 : 56 1968
>
> MORAVCSIK MJ
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> SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 5 : 86 1975
>
> PRICE DJD
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>
> SMALL H
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>
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>
> TAINER JA
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>
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>
> WEINSTOCK M
> ENCY LIBRARY INFORMA 5 : 16 1971
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> 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
Jean-Claude Guédon
Université de Montréal
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