How to Use the Social Sciences Citation Index (sscz)

Number 27 Most readers of Current Contents~ are research scientists in the life and physical sciences. A significant number are interested in the social or behavioral sciences. In addition, there is an important group of readers who work directly in the social sciences. Some day we hope to demonstrate by detailed " connectivi-ty " studies how important the social sciences are in the conduct not only of research in biomedicine, but also in providing answers to important policy issues in the physical sciences. Several of our journal citation studies have uncovered links between the social and natural sciences. For example, an analysis of citation patterns in anthropology journals revealed a close relationship between anthropology and human anatomy, biology, genetics, and dentistry. 1In the early days, Science Citation Index@ (SCF) covered fields— like psychology—at the border between the social and natural sciences. However , when we created a separate file called Social Sciences Citation Index'a (SSCP),2 the majority of journals in these borderline fields were assigned to either SCZ or SSC1. Although psychology journals were assigned to SSC1, SC1 still covers those major journals in this and other borderline fields. My first paper on the need for a citation index in the social and behavioral sciences was published in 1964.3 It wasn't until 1973 that ISI@ launched SSC1 to meet that need.z However, we eventually extended SSCI coverage back to 1966. These and subsequent annual JUly 2, 1984 volumes now provide coverage of two million journal articles, books, and book chapters from 1966 to 1983 and the 20 million references they cited. We also plan to publish an 1l-year cumulation for SSCI covering 1955-1965 to match its chronological coverage with the 1955-1964 SCI cumulation we recently published.~ Since their inception, both SCZ and SSCI were recognized by information scientists and sociologists as important tools to help study the history, evohs-tion, and sociology of science. Some of these potential uses were forecast as early as 1955.5 Although the sociometric and other nonbibliographic uses of citation indexes may one day exceed their use for information retrieval, the primary purpose of SCI, SSCI, and Arts & Hu inanities Ci~ation Index 'w (A&HCI 'M)is to help you search the literature. As I stressed recently, there is a continuing need to educate scholars in these uses. b The basic function of any well-designed index ought to be readily self-evident. But there are numerous strategies for searching …