The diverse roles of citation indexes in scientific research.

I want to thank Dr. Alarcon-Segovia for inviting me to help to celebrate the 1 OOh birthday of Dr. Salvador Zubiran. Perhaps Dr. Z&ran left you his formula for long life. It would be nice to return here to celebrate my own 1 OO* birthday. Dr. Alarcon-Segovia and I had many telephone and email exchanges. Eventually, we decided it would be best to speak about “Los roles diversos de indices de citation en la investigation cienttfica”. When the Science Citation Index was first introduced in 1964, there was little doubt that its primary function was information retrieval. For about ten years there were controversial discussions amongst librarians about its usefulness for searching the literature. Being conservative and trained to use Index Medicus, as well as Chemical and 6io/ogica/ Abstracts, they were at first reluctant to acquire the SCI. Today, its role in libraries is well established. Acquiring SCI is determined primarily on the grounds of cost, and not on the basis of utility. Since it is multidisciplinary and includes abstracts, many libraries give it a higher priority than traditional abstracting services. After my talk, I will give you a live demonstration of the latest technological development of SC/ now called the Web of Science. However, the transformation of SC/ from print to CD-ROM a decade ago already accentuated its use as a bibliometric tool for quantitative scientometric analyses. Indeed SC/ was the first computer-generated index and one of the first to be made available on-line in 1972. Unfortunately, time does not permit me to discuss all of the varied types of retrieval problems that can be solved uniquely with SCI. But there is one fundamental use that every scientist should learn which complements the use of primary journals and Medline. No matter where you have encountered or learned about a paper, book, or patent, you should check the SC/ to learn whether and where that paper has been cited. As editors and authors, this will *Eugene Garfield