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

Wed Feb 11 10:09:47 EST 2009

It’s also worth pointing out that Jeppe Nicolaisen’s recent ARIST review does discuss various calls for a theory of citation.  It also discusses psychological, normative, social constructivist, persuasion…. And other versions of why people cite things.

I highly recommend it.

Nicolaisen, J. (2007). Citation analysis. In B. Cronin (Ed.), Annual review of information science and technology (pp. 609-641). Medford, N.J.: Information Today. DOI: 10.1002/aris.2007.1440410120

ASIS&T members and subscribers to their digital library can read it online. 

Christina 

________________________________________
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

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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-- 
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 