Scientometrics is the study of the quantitative aspects of the process of science as a communication system. It is centrally, but not only, concerned with the analysis of citations in the academic literature. In recent years it has come to play a major role in the measurement and evaluation of research performance. In this review we consider: the historical development of scientometrics, source...

The BIR workshop series foster the revitalisation of dormant links between two fields in information science: information retrieval and bibliometrics/scientometrics. Hopefully, tightening up these links will cross-fertilise both fields. I believe compelling research questions lie at the crossroads of scientometrics and other fields: not only information retrieval but also, for instance, psychol...

The paper provides an overview of the field of scientometrics, that is: the study of science, technology, and innovation from a quantitative perspective. We cover major historical milestones in the development of this specialism from the 1960s to today and discuss its relationship with the sociology of scientific knowledge, the library and information sciences, and science policy issues such as...

The author of this letter to the editor would like to set forth the argument that scientometrics is currently in a phase in which a taxonomic change, and hence a revolution, is taking place. One of the key terms in scientometrics is scientific impact which nowadays is understood to mean not only the impact on science but the impact on every area of society.

This paper discusses the intellectual justification of scientometrics through the claim that it is part of the quest for a quantitative science of science. Initially, I will make a brief description of scientometrics’ historical background. Next, I will explain that those disciplines that have been satisfactorily mathematized always contain two distinct basic components: an axiomatic, defining ...

While ISSI was founded in 1993, scientometrics and bibliometrics are now at least half a century old. Indeed, the field can be traced to early quantitative studies in the early 20 Century. In the thirties, it evolved to the “science of science.” The publication of J. D. Bernal’s Social Function of Science in 1939 was a key transition point but the field lay dormant until after World War II, whe...

Scientometrics and bibliometrics are being forced to respond to a strong increase in demand (e.g. research assessment practices, economics of science & technology, and innovation) and new forms of supply (e.g. availability of publication sources and statistics, Internet developments and online tools). This situation results in contrasting perspectives: on the one hand, it can favour spectacular...

When scientometricians are asked about the relationship between citations and quality, they often argue along the lines that citations could be seen as indicators of use and that that this implies usefulness and impact on other research, which in turn is an argument for using them as indicators of quality. This paper questions the implicit linearity of such a ‘one-dimensional model’ of represen...

The goal of this study is to stimulate a broader and deeper application of scientometric theory in information systems (IS) research, specifically to emphasize the benefits of scientometrics in the conceptual development of the IS field. The study reviews the underlying theories of scientometrics, specifically how they combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches towards research evalua...