ALBERT

Notizen: Abstract Applications of fuzzy set theory to various problems of data processing influenced greatly the analysis of expert opinion results. The authors developed models based on the fuzzy set concept for expert assessments using quantitative and qualitative scales typical in R & D management. The approach is illustrated by the solution of the problem of ranking of the factors influencing practical applications of research results.

Notizen: Abstract A method of measuring the communication in a network of research institutions i presented. The method is based on the determination of the subject similarity of research reports. The requests of the users are taken into account. The hierarchic cluster analysis of communication in the network is fulfilled on the base of the fuzzy binary relations of similarity between objects.

Notizen: Abstract We suggest some theoretical considerations concerning parastatistical distribution of the number of journals by the number of articles which they contain (structural units). Our experiments agree with the theoretical conclusions with accuracy up to 0.31%, and withPrice's experiments — with accuracy of 0.7%. The qualitive agreement of the theoretical model suggested is shown withBonitz's experiments. The agreement of the theory and the experiment is discussed and it is shown that the model suggested describes the Groos effect, i. e. it introduces a correction to the Bradford law.

Notizen: Abstract Publication and citation indicators of groups are thought to enhance the quality and legitimacy of science policy decisions. While these indicators might be of value from a policy pont of view, the relation between these cumulative data and the local circumstances that influence the development of scientific knowledge has not been explored extensively. In this paper it is argued that publication and citation patterns related to research units are influenced by local circumstances. Toxicology is chosen as an example because it is directed at solving social problems and relates to local practices. In this paper, output indicatiors of Dutch toxicological research units are related to qualitative information on the strategies of these units. it can be shown that the variation in output and citation indicators can be explained in terms of local variations in context. Such variations in local organizational settings should caution against the application of scientometric studies to measure impact as an indicator of scientific quality.

Notizen: Abstract This paper presents a methodological analysis of the latest update of the CHI/NSF Science Literature Indicators Data-Base. The data-base contains a range of publication and citation indicators borken down by country and field or subfield, and now convers the period from 1973 to 1984. It can be used to draw comparisons of the changing output and impact of basic research in different countries. Earlier applications of the data-base have been constrained by various technical limitations, and have been subject to certain criticism. In this article, after some conceptual analysis of what aspects of scientific performance the different indicators relate to, we show that much of the criticism is misplaced. We also describe subsequent methodological improvements to the indicators and the effect these have on the policy use that can be made. Finally, we examine what the latest statistics reveal about the relative international standing of seven leading scientific nations.

Notizen: Abstract An evaluation was made of the use of bibliometric indicators for five disciplines in the humanities (social history, general linguistics, general literature, Dutch literature, and Dutch language) and three disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences (experimental psychology, anthropology, and public administration) in the Netherlands. Articles in journals were the predominant outlet in all disciplines. Monographs and popularizing articles were more important outlets in ‘softer’ fields than in ‘harder’ ones. The enlightenment function of scholarship was especially evident in Dutch literature and language, and public administration. Only some of the humanities disciplines are locally oriented. Although many publications were written in English, only experimental psychology, general linguistics, anthropology, and genrral literature were internationally oriented regarding output media. The impact of departments differed greatly both within and between disciplines. For all disciplines, bibliometric indicators are potentially useful for monitoring international impact, as expert interviews confirmed. Especially in Dutch language, Dutch literature and public administration, ISI-citation data are not very useful for monitoring national impact.

Notizen: Abstract A severe criticism against the use of citation indicators for the measurement of a research group's performance holds that these indicators reflect at least partly the size of the scientific activity in the subfield or topic in which the group works. In this contribution an attempt is made to substantiate this claim within the framework of Price's theory on the processes of knowledge growth. Empirical evidence is presented that among a number of subfields from the natural and life sciences significant differences exist with respect to Price's index, and that the citation scores of research groups tend to be high in subfields showing a high value of Price's index and other characteristics of reference patterns. These findings suggest that groups sharing an intellectual focus with other researchers tend to obtain higher citation scores than groups working more ‘on their own’.

Notizen: Abstract Titles of 925 conference papers contained in the first ten International Teletraffic Conferences (1955–1983) are analyzed in terms of word distributions. The aim is to determine how information about changing word frequencies and word patterns relates to the kind of information gained through the more traditional approach of intellectual history. Additionally, we consider what each approach can reveal about the information flows involved in the production and utilization of knowledge in teletraffic. In terms of methodology, the goal of this dual approach is to understand how the analysis of word and document structures can be used both as a scientometric tool and as a tool for historical research. We also comment more generally on the significance of conferences as an object for scientometric analysis, particularly with respect to the emergence and growth of the engineering and industrial sciences.

Notizen: Abstract This section ofScientometrics will carry fresh and reliable news of people, programs, recent and forthcoming meetings and publications etc. Its effectiveness depends greatly on your assistance. Items for inclusion should be submitted to the Co-ordinating Editor, Dr.J. Farkas.

Notizen: Abstract The distribution of Mexican health science publications according to the states of origin, institutions, main cities has been measured in four main health science bibliographic databases. The results showed that Mexican health sciences research activities are highly skewed.

Notizen: Abstract Most of the scientific and technical databases contain codes. These codes divide the area of the database field in subfields. These divisions can be used to map automatically the research network of a subject, and to provide its main research poles. The present paper explains the methodology, and applies it toChemical Abstracts, and to the analysis of the research production of various academic institutions. The method is general and can be used with other databases such as Inspec, WPI-WPIL, etc...

Notizen: Abstract This paper presents some results of the first studies done in the country using information from patents applied for in Cuba by national and foreign entities. Its main objective is to demonstrate the potential usefulness of this source of data, and of the types of analysis used for the elaboration of diagnoses, as well as for the description of some tendencies of national innovation and R+D efforts. The most relevant technological fields, the participation of the countries during the period and the intensity of their activity in those fields were the aspects studied.

Notizen: Abstract The technique of sampling a department'sk best publications as a means of assessing the quality of its research performance is investigated. It is shown that this procedure confounds merit with departmental size, and leads to a substantial overestimation of the research achievement of larger departments. The 1985–86 evaluation of research performance conducted by the University Grants Committee of the United Kingdom contained a sampling error of this kind.

Notizen: Abstract This section ofScientometrics will carry fresh and reliable news people, programs, recent and forthcoming meetings and publications, etc. Its effectiveness depends greatly on your assistance. Items for inclusion should be submitted to the Co-ordinating Editor, Dr.J. Farkas.

Notizen: Abstract Is is shown, using rigorous statistical tests, that the number of journals (J) carryingp papers in a given subject can be expressed as a simple power law functionJ(p)=K p −γ , K and γ being constants. The standard maximum likelihood method of estimating γ has been suitably modified to take acoount of the fact thatp is a discrete integer variable. The parameter γ entirely characterises the scatter of articles in journals in a given bibliography. According to a dynamic model proposed earlier by the author, γ is a measure of the relative growth rates of papers and journals pertaining to the subject.

Notizen: Abstract This paper examines the following basic issues of leadership in research units: (1) characteristics of the leader and the functions performed by him that predict the image of his quality; and (2) the role of leadership in enhancing the performance of the research unit. Analysis is based on data collected on 1460 research units in six countries for the second round of International Comparative Study on Organization and Performance of Research Units. Variations in the characteristics and role of leadership in different institutional settings and countries are analyzed through POSCOR (ranking programme based on partially ordered sets). Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to examine the common pattern of relationship of various indices of leadership with the image of leader's quality and three measures of effectiveness — scientific, user-oriented and administrative. Analysis was repeated for each country to explore the stability in the pattern of relationships and to identify universal indices that have consistent relationships across countries. Implications of the results are discussed.

Notizen: Abstract Some theoretical connections with Bradford's law of scattering of articles in journals have been note to substantiate the completely empirical linear formula,R(r)=a.r−b wherer is the rank of a class of journals in increasing productivity,R is a typical function, called “mean relative scatter” (MRS), of the class rankr, a andb are arbitrary constants. It is also shown that an exponential formula can be transformed to the linear one, thereby explicating certain constants and co-efficients of Bradford's formula and the proposed one.

Notizen: Abstract Ranking lists of periodicals in different scientific disciplines are generally based on the total number of citations derived from a group of source journals with equal weightage given to all citations irrespective of chronology. As a result, in all these ranking lists, the position occupied by the post-war journals, may not be an accurate index of their demand or usefulness to research workers in the concerned field. This may happen because the quantum of published literature in the new journals is limited by the period for which they have been in existence, which is in many cases less than 20 years. Moreover, many of the post-war journals appearing in all these recent ranking lists have started publication even after 1960s, and their enumerated citations cover in fact a variable period of less than 20 years unlike in the case of pre-war journals. To avoid such discriminating against new journals which necessarily have fewer citation credits Sengupta suggested earlier an off-setting weightage formula which has been applied in this paper to rerank microbiology periodicals. A revised ranking list in the field of microbiology has been recommended in preference to the earlier one compiled by Sengupta. Results and findings, after application of the weightage formula, have been presented and discussed in this paper.

Notizen: Abstract Knowledge and literature of neuroscience started growing steadily during the last few centuries. This paper aims to study the growth of knowledge in neuroscience as well as its literature. The first part of the paper, enumerates a historical survey of the growth of knowledge based on published data. This is done in view of the fact that a consolidated information at one place will be of great value to the students of scientometrics and also to the research scholars who are desirous to undertake research in this discipline. The second part of the paper is entirely based on experimental data which were collected to analyse the growth of literature of the subject. Neuroscience is notable for its wide range of approaches and techniques. In no other branch of research such a manysided approach is so essential. As a consequence last few decades have witnessed an accelerated research tempo and unprecedented growth of the literature on the subject covering its different sub-fields with gradual and systematic transgression of the conventional boundaries between them. To cope with the growth of literature, a new bibliometric technique has been applied to rank periodicals in the field based on 5785 citation data collected from the bibliographic data base published in the source journal namely,Annual Review of Neuroscience. It is expected that this list will reflect the impact of literature on the advancement of knowledge in the field of neuroscience. A striking feature of this study is the comparatively small contribution (8.8%) coming from the application of biochemical techniques and concepts to neuroscience research which differs from what we had noted earlier in the case of other biomedical disciplines. High position occupied by multidisciplinary science journals brings out the significance of new neuroscience research to science as a whole and confirms the importance of this category of journals in the dissemination of knowledge for the overall growth of science. Relatively low proportion, of citations of journals of medicine, both general as well as specialities, in spite of direct relevance of much work in this field to neurological and mental illness reflects the preponderance of interest in the funcamental aspects of neuroscience research. Like other biomedical disciplines neuroscience literature also exhibits English as the most-preferred lingua franca of the subject; dominance of journals published from USA, UK, Germany and the Netherland; a wide scatter of cited literature showing the multidisciplinary approach characteristic of present-day neuroscience research. The results of this study support Bradford's Law of Scattering and also Sengupta's Law of Bibliometrics. It is expected that the present ranking list will be of great help to the working neuroscientists to select a handful of core periodicals in the field for regular browsing from the viewpoint of their importance and significance as these core journals identify maximum segment of contemporary literature on the topics of direct relevance to their day to day research in the field.

Notizen: Abstract The present paper examines the multiple authorship in research papers in biomedical sciences from the more basic aspects to clinically oriented research. Seventeen journals were chosen for analysis — nine from the general and life sciences categories and eight from medical sciences group with clinical orientation. All these were “high impact” journals as per the Science Citation Index and come in the top ten journals in their respective desciplines. The average authors/paper was significantly higher (P〈0.001) in medical journals −4.299 (range 3.21–5.35) as compared to general biomedical journals −3.298 (range 3.21–5.35). Data from highly cited papers (1961–78) also indicate that papers in clinical sciences have higher average authors (2.71) as compared to preclinical basic research (2.25: P〈0.26) and more basic research areas like biochemistry and molecular biology (2.208; P〈0.02). The team size in research in clinical subjects is therefore appreciably larger as compared to basic biomedical sciences. Also the general and biomedical sciences articles were relatively longer (average 7.75 pages; range 2.69–10.07) as compared to medical papers with a clinical orientation (avarage 4.24 pages; range 1.80–12.92; P〈0.001).

Notizen: Abstract The merits and shortcomings of bibliometric evaluation techniques are well known; the reliability of the techniques varies according to the discipline. For technology the reliability is small. The electron microscope is a clear case of extreme mismatch between the number of citations received and the impact of the instrument in a wide area of science. The instrument is comparable to a scientific publication in the way in which it is used and referred to in the literature. In this paper we estimate the size of the citation gap, i.e. the number of citations an author misses because the results of his research are made public in the form of an instrument instead of via an article in a journal.

Notizen: Abstract The relation between the frequency and rank forms and the connection of the parameters of the corresponding model scientometric distributions is discussed. Besides, while using the probabilistic interpretation of the data which are presented as a sample from a model population, the behaviour of the extreme values is examined. For example, the median μ of the distribution of the maximal values for the samples of the size N from the Zipf-Pareto distribution, which is typical for social phenomena, increases faster than the sample size N if α〈1: μ∼ const.N 1/α. The knowledge of the asymptotical behaviour of the characteristics of the extreme values is necessary for the adequate modelling in scientometrics.

Notizen: Abstract The socio-cultural dimensions of the creative act is analysed by a mathematical model considering that the creative act is a mimes mutation as a result of an accumulation of evidences. So the mimes complex of a socio-cultural niche is changed explosively if given conditions which are mathematically determined, are accomplished. The equation determining the sociocultural dimensions of creativity is established and its solutions, are discussed.

Notizen: Abstract Empirical work in the social studies of science has progressed rapidly with the availability and development of the citation indexes. Citation counts have become a widely accepted measure of the quality of a scientific contribution. However, there are several problems involved in the use of citation counts as a measure of quality in science. First, citation counts are sensitive to popular trends in science. In this sense, they approximate a Nielsen rating for science. Second, the distribution of citations restricts their utility to separating the extremes. Third, citation counts are not sensitive to the ethical and moral dimensions of the quality of a scientific contribution. Fourth, citation counts underestimate the contribution of applied scientists. This paper examines these limitations.

Notizen: Abstract This paper describes the mainstream scientific output of the scientific communities of four newly industrializing Asian countries (Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) and considers its adequacy for describing local scientific activities in biochemistry, biology, physics, electrical engineering, and computer science. An examination of non mainstream scientific literature in these specialties shows that a high proportion of non mainstream authors also publish in mainstream literature. Data concerning degree of parochialism, age of references and use of vernacular literature are examined. The paper argues that it is misleading to characterize these peripheral scientific communities as principally stratified in function of local scientists' participation in mainstream science.

Notizen: Abstract The purpose of this survey is to review the present situation of the referee systems of 55 English-language scientific journals in Japan, and to evaluate their quality and international readership of those journals. Based on this survey, the author discusses some editorial efforts which may promote the greater use worldwide.

Notizen: Conclusions After a rather comprehensive analysis of severalSCI based publication productivity indicators, it can be concluded that neither the view of a “continuing decline”5 nor that of a “remarkable increase”6 of British science in the first half of the eighties can be supported by valid bibliometric/scientometric arguments. The annual changes of any of the indicators considered had no statistical significance, and no trend distinguishable from the effect of random fluctuations could be observed. Some of the indicators showed a local minimum in 1982, the significance of which can be clarified only in the frame of a longer range study. All the abovementioned refers to British science in general. As a previous paper5 reported also a decline of British publication performance in some science fields and subfields these would have to be investigated one by one with the above described methodology. The present authors did investigate the research performance of British analytical chemistry which has been mentioned as a declining subfield.5 Our results however showed12 that analytical chemistry is a flourishing subfield in Britain. Finaly we mention thatNederhof in a recent study on the performance of six industrial nations in the field of biotechnology insisted that his “findings contradict earlier reports4 showing UK losses in article productivity in basic research”.13

Notizen: Abstract The paper examines whether productivity differences among individual researchers are larger in some fields of learning than in others. Productivity patterns in the natural sciences, the medical sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities are compared by the use of unweighted and weighted publication counts. Irrespective of whether total number of publications or a refined indicator taking account of type of publication and multiple authorship are used, there are no essential differences in publishing inequality between the various fields. About 20% of the tenured faculty at Norwegian universities produce 50% of the total output, and the most prolific half of the researchers account for almost 85% of the output. The results are discussed in relation to Lotka's law.

Notizen: Abstract It is shown that in natural sciences, interdependences between variables are determined regardless of the distributions of variable values, whereas in science studies, distributions should be used as a starting point. This difference is due the nature of measuring instruments: in natural sciences, measurements are performed with the use of devices, while science of science uses “human devices” adapting themselves to the measured objects. Practical inferences are drawn.

Notizen: Abstract Aging is one of the properties of scientific and technical literature. The knowledge of the laws of aging is very important in the science of science, information science and library science. Methodological errors in studying the aging process cause wrong results. By means of non-traditional processing of well-known empiric data the author refutes such generally accepted ideas as the idea of very rapid aging of literature, the idea of more rapid aging of publications on rapidly developing fields of knowledge, the idea of the maximum of book use being only in a few years after its publication, and some other ideas.

Notizen: Abstract Possible applications of cluster analysis of bibliographic references as a scientometric method are studied. It is shown that cluster analysis made by means of bibliographic coupling byKessler and co-citation byMarshakova-Small present comparable results. “Science maps” on immunological topics are made. Particularly for historico-scientific studies it is useful to make clusters in rectangular coordinates taking into account the value of citing the document and the year of its publication. It is observed that at the junction points of sciences there is an almost twofold deceleration of the processes of application and spreading of knowledge. It is stated that the problem of “information explosion” does not exist on the level of new ideas, the number of which is less than 0.1% of the total volume of the published information flow 40% of which is formed by “information noise”.

Notizen: Abstract Because of the widespread use of citations in evaluation, we tend to think of them primarily as a form of colleague recognition. This interpretation neglects rhetorical factors that shape patterns of citations. After reviewing sociological theories of citation, this paper argues that we should think of citations first as rhetoric and second as reward. Some implications of this view for quantitative modeling of the citation process are drawn.

Notizen: Abstract What makes a scientific article significant? This paper-part of a larger study which will examine how various kinds of significance can be related to one another in a coherent theoretical framework-focusses on the processes by which new knowledge claims are being integrated into the cognitive structure when they are cited in other papers. Citations appear both as “threads” linking the citing papers to the existing literature in the field, and as elements fulfilling specific functions within the arguments made in these papers. We have found that (1) it is misleading to equate every article with a single knowledge claim, let alone with an attempt to construct “a fact”; (2) even when the same “sentence” is cited repeatedly, it can be put to quite different uses in the citing papers; and (3) the process of codification of scientific knowledge through the use of references appears to be far more complex and multi-dimensional than citation context analyses focussing on the use and the gradual disappearance of modalities would lead us to believe. Some consequences for the use use of citation analysis to reconstruct cognitive structures will be discussed.

Notizen: Abstract Review articles in the field of polymer science in the seventies are analyzed in order to check their usefulness in describing at a very low cost the development or the state of the art of a field. Results are compared with those obtained through a quantitative study of scientific articles published at the same time in the field. Review articles can be regarded as defining a research programme attempting to link together two networks: polymer properties—as being desirable from market considerations—and polymer structure—as being analyzable by means of academic science, through three kinds of “translation” strategies. If we thus define a research programme in terms of the mobilization of networks, it is possible to say of review articles that they provide a good representation of the development of networks of problems whose evolution they sketch.

Notizen: Abstract This paper discusses the possibility to represent scientific development by ‘second-order networks’ in different modalities. In particular, a specific modality structured by subfield-to-subfield relations is presented. By constructing such ‘co-subfield maps’ for successive periods of time, we were able to describe the changing subfield relations within the field of chemical engineering. In this way, dynamical processes in the development of a field as a whole can be revealed. Advantages and disavantages as compared to co-citation and co-word mapping techniques are discussed and the importance of developing combined techniques is stressed.

Notizen: Abstract This paper deals with three types of questions concerning the application of citation analysis. First, it studies the use of citation analysis for assessing national research performance in a research subfield; second, it discusses methodological problems related to the definition of research subfields and to data acquisition; and third, as the data concern four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, attention will be devoted to special problems arising from the application of citation analysis to relatively small countries. These problems are of both methodological and interpretative character.

Notizen: Abstract The inadequacies of citation analysis-based quatitative techniques in the context of developing countries owe their origins to the rather small size of most peripheral country scientific enterprises, the poor coverage of Third World journals in bibliographic databases, (and in particularSCI), the cognitive limitations of citation analysis pointed out by microsociologists, and the non-normative nature of the scientific enterprise in these countries. Much of peripheral science is derivative and imitative of science done in the centre, rather than ‘original’ or ‘path-breaking’, and there is hardly any indigenous ‘scientific community’. And yet, citation analysis-based quantitative measures can be applied to characterise different aspects of peripheral science. These techniques assume great importance, especially in view of the massive inadequacies of the peer review process prevailing in these countries. The application of such citation-based quantification to units of different levels of aggregation such as a journal, an institution and a country as a whole has been demonstrated taking India as the example. Our results show that levels of funding have no correlation with the quality or international citation impact of the literature output resulting from a project. Almost all Indian journals have a very low impact on world literature, and the relatively better performance ofJournal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (and Indian astronomical research in general) owes it to favourable factors, both social and cognitive.

Notizen: Abstract Bibliometric analysis is combined with a psychometric analysis of the perceptions which researchers in a community of Dutch fresh-water ecologists have of their professional environment. The results of these two types of analysis converge and can be understood by an exploration of the institutional and intellectual development of the community and the intellectual continuities in the careers of the researchers involved. International developments appear to be taken up in ways which reflect the particular socio-cognitive organization of the national subfield. The article claims that such national subfields of science constitute a strategic research site for social studies of science which is also directly relevant for science policy analysis. It pleads for the employment of a combination of methods in the synchronic and diachronic analysis of the structures of such subfields.

Notizen: Abstract For the most part scientific developments in problem fields result in increasing specification of research problems. With respect to the problem of Minimal Brain Dysfunction, however, the reverse trend can be observed. In the case of the occurrence of behavioural problems related tominimal brain dysfunction, scientific developments resulted in a more diffuse formulation because of the nature of this problem. In the paper co-word analysis methodology is used to study changes in the structure of networks around central terms in this field for the period 1970–1984. It is apparent that central terms in the field are not able to “funnel the interests” in the field despite the growing number of scientific articles written on the subject.

Notizen: Abstract One model for knowledge development is the network interaction model. Insofar as socio-technical networks may have some structural properties, does knowledge development reflect this? The hypothesis that it does may enable us to make some forecasts of science development from a description of the state of a field. One condition necessary for testing this hypothesis is that of adopting a model for these networks. Co-word analysis is such a tool. It gives us key-words networks derived from scientific and technical texts. The author checks for network properties in the area of knowledge development through a case study of Polymer Science and Technology from 1973 to 1978.

Notizen: Abstract A new bibliometric method is proposed for representing links between subfields as defined by a classification scheme. The frequency of co-occurrence of articles from different subfields in selected journals is used for measuring the degree of relatedness between these subfields. The results of such quantitative analysis could be compared to the tree topology of the classification network established in a qualitative analysis. The method is applied to describe the internal links within the field of condensed matter physics using the 1984 Physics Abstracts database. A distinction is made between experimental and theoretical links on the basis of treatment codes assigned to journal articles. The links described by cluster analysis are matched against the cross-reference network of the International Classification for Physics.

Notizen: Abstract A sample of “Citation Classics” in three scientific fields was studied to uncover citing motivations. The classics were classified into basic research, methods and reviews. Number of citations received per classic, number of authors, and age of classic per category and scientific field were the parameters studied. Journals and countries accounting for the highest incidence of classics were examined. A striking parallelism was found in the parameters applied to the categories in the scientific fields studied. This parallelism suggests similar citing habits of scientists in the fields studied which should be reflected in the structures of science obtained through citation grounded bibliometric models.

Notizen: Abstract Computerized bibliographic databases have become sufficiently well developed and widely available to researchers that they have become potentially an important source of time series estimates of the growth of scientific literature. This paper uses the GEOREF3 database in such an application to estimation of the growth of geoscience. It is found by comparison with studies previously done from the hardcopy equivalents of GEOREF3 that the computer-derived time series can achieve results similar to their equivalents and do this more efficiently, more inexpensively and more comprehensively. Examples are given for geoscience as a whole, and for the literature related to several mineral commodities: iron ore, lead ore, nickel ore, petroleum and natural gas, radioactive minerals and ores, and zinc ore.

Notizen: Abstract The article deals with the statistical problem of the difference between the mean citation frequencies of two sets of papers required to be significantly different. An analysis of citation data indicated that, as a first-order approximation, (1) The relative spread due to a short observation interval is independent of the long-term citation frequency and (2) the relative spread in long-term citation frequencies of different papers from the same author is independent of the mean citation score for the papers by that author. As a rule-of-thumb, these two sources of variance can be characterized by standard deviations of a ratio (factor) of 2 and 3, respectively. By applying these results to citation data published in the literature, it is shown that sometimes statistically unjustified conclusions have been drawn in the past.

Notizen: Abstract A debate has occurred recently over the issue whether it is possible to account for differences in results when using various versions of theScience Citation Index for the measurement of national performance in terms of numbers of scientific publications. This article provides an overview of the various arguments which have been made, and reports that recent reorganization in the on-line installations (SciSearch) should make it possible to circumvene one of the major sources of error.

Notizen: Abstract To compare citation history and contextual “importance”, eleven highly cited articles, 4 slowly aging (Type 1) and 7 quickly aging (Type 2), were ranked using an aggregate citation context measure, the Mean Utility Index. Based on citations in late (PY 6 & 7) source articles, “methods” papers consistently ranked higher than papers cited for research results and theoretical implications, and Type 1 methods papers ranked above all Type 2 papers. A Type 1 paper representing an important theoretical concept could not be distinguished from Type 2 papers using citation context alone.

Notizen: Abstract A mapping technique similar to that first used by J. D.Bernal and refined by E.Garfield is applied to the historiography of electrical science. The usefulness of this technique for the historical research of scientific ideas is shown using examples of major developments in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Notizen: Abstract In this paper, an attempt has been made to forecast science and technology expenditure of India by simulation method as well as by regression method. The base data used are the average yearly growth rates of science and technology expenditure both at current and constant prices. For the regression analyses, the yearly growth rates of the gross national product at factor cost both at current and constant prices are used as independent variable. The forecast values of S&T expenditure have been given up to seven years from 1982–83, for both simulation method and regression method.

Notizen: Abstract An approach to optimization of research based on the theory of experiment and scientometrics is proposed. Research is treated as an experiment aimed at attainment of optimal conditions. The following successive phases of optimization have been singled out: selection of optimisation parameters and factors, carrying out the experiment, and processing and interpreting the results obtained. Methods of multidimensional classification and screening are recommended for selection of optimization parameters and factors. Evolutionary operation representations are used at the optimization stage. Problems of optimization research should be tackled in centres of scientific information where data on advances made in various scientific fields are accumulated.

Notizen: Abstract A procedure including scientometric methods combined with other techniques is described. This allows to define the membership and structure of a scientific school and to trace the dynamics of its development. Formation and evolution of a scientific school is presented as a purposeful scientific-information process involving changes in the nature and dynamics of the types of information links.

Notizen: Abstract Citation analysis is a useful method for studying a wide range of topics in bibliometrics and the sociology of science. However, many challenges have been made to the validity and reliability of the underlying assumptions, the data, and the methods used in citation studies. This article addresses these issues in three parts. First is a brief review of validity and reliability issues in citation research. Next we explore measurement error in a principal source of journal-to-journal citation data, the Institute for Scientific Information'sJournal Citation Reports. Possible sources of measurement error include discrepancies between citing and cited data, changed or deleted journal titles, aberrant abbreviations, and listing algorithms. The last section is a detailed description of ways to overcome some of the measurement errors. The data and examples are drawn from a journal-to-journal citation study in the fields of Communication, Information Science, and Library Science.

Notizen: Abstract We give an upper and a lower bound for the slope, on a semi logarithmic scale, of the cumulative graph of a data set, such as a bibliography, originating from the disjoint merging of two similar data sets.

Notizen: Abstract This section ofScientometrics will carry fresh and reliable news of people, programs, recent and forthcoming meetings and publications etc. Its effectiveness depends greatly on your assistance. Items for inclusion should be submitted to the Co-ordinating Editor, Dr.J. Farkas.

Notizen: Abstract This issue ofScientometrics originated from a Workshop of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST). In this introduction the relations between qualitative theory and the use of scientometric methods is placed in the historical perspective of the emergence of science and technology studies over the last decades. The differences among various theories in terms of dimensions, units of analysis and levels of aggregation are elaborated. Thereafter, the various contributions to the issue are discussed within this framework.

Notizen: Abstract This section ofScientometrics will carry fresh and reliable news of people, programs, recent and forthcoming meetings and publications etc. Its effectiveness depends greatly on your assistance. Items for inclusion should be submitted to the Co-ordinating Editor, Dr. J.Farkas.

Notizen: Abstract A bibliography of biochemical literature of Nigeria for the period, 1970–1984 containing a total of 500 items, was analysed to test the applicability of Lotka's law and 80/20-rule to the author productivity distribution patterns. Four different files were created out of the data on author productivity: one for the publication of all the authors, second for the publications by first authors only, third for single authors and fourth for the contributions of only coauthors. Lotka's law could apply in all the four cases with different values of α. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied to test the applicability of Lotka's law at 0.01 level of significance. Egghe's theory and formula were used to test 80/20-rule and it was found that the rule did not apply to any of the four data sets.

Notizen: Abstract Topical coverage by major scientific discipline on the part of six popular monthly magazines is compared to expected values based on the number of doctoral graduates per discipline. A major discrepancy is found in the relatively sparse coverage of chemistry. A case study of advances in catalysis is used to demonstrate that there are newsworthy developments in chemistry that could provide copious source materials. Speculative explanations for the relatively scant attention given to chemistry are advanced. The neglect of chemistry by the popular media is seen as a possible problem area for science educators who may depend on supplementary readings at all levels of instruction including informal adult education.

Notizen: Abstract The LEXIMAPPE method and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) are discussed as methods to visualize (‘map’) characteristics of structures of word-occurrence (‘co-word’) relations. Utilization of MDS is proposed as an alternative mapping method able to circumvent problematic features of LEXIMAPPE maps of the total co-word structure. A comparison of both methods on the same ‘real-life’ co-word matrix demonstrates topological advantages of an extended MDS-mapping.

Notizen: Abstract A linear increase law of optimum age of scientific creativity is proposed. The author has analysed the optimum age of major scientific discoveries (or inventions) by the least square method and an increase ratio has been obtained. The optimum age and the age of great fame in next half century are forcast also.

Notizen: Abstract The beginning and early spread of the world-wide epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been paralleled closely by a rapidly expanding literature concerned with many aspects of the disease. In order to assess the growth of the AIDS literature, a quantitative analysis was conducted focusing on the number of articles, the number of journals contributing, the number of languages used, and the number of countries of origin of publications over time (a bibliometric study). The growth of the popular literature was also studied. Three online databases — MEDLINE, Magazine Index, and the National Newspaper Index — were examined from 24 September 1982 (the date the Centers for Disease Control first adopted the name “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”) through the end of 1986 for the popular literature and through the end of 1987 for MEDLINE. A survey of the MEDLINE file showed that by the end of 1987, twenty-five languages were represented in articles from fifty-four countries published in 1170 different journal titles.

Notizen: Abstract In this study an attempt to examine the dependence between the productivity of core journals and the shape of the distribution curve in the upper section is made. For this purpose, the impact of the core journal productivity increase over an extended time interval was investigated. As a referent point in relation to which the changes were followed, equalized inverse relationship between the core and periphery in terms of the number of journals and the number of papers published in them in a given subject field has been hypothesized. The degree to which a particular set of data conforms to that relationship expressed as β, is taken as an indicator of the changes in the core/periphery relation. The applicability of Lotka's exponent in the journal productivity context is also discussed.

Notizen: Abstract This section ofScientometrics will carry fresh and reliable news of people, programs, recent and forthcoming meetings and publications etc. Its effectiveness depends greatly on your assistance. Items for inclusion should be submitted to the Co-ordinating Editor, Dr. J.Farkas.

Notizen: Abstract This article reports the results of a scientometric assessment of agricultural research in South Africa over the period 1974–1984. The Science Literature Indicators Database of CHI is used and South Africa is compared with 7 other countries spread in America, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. The criteria used for the assessment are the contribution of each country to international agricultural literature (in terms of publications) and their impact in the “Schubert-Glänzel-Braun Impact Scale“. It was found that, although the South African contribution has improved in that period, it is comparable to that of Brazil and Argentina; that Nigeria and Israel produce 3 times more, and: that Australia and Canada contribute more than one order of magnitude of publications more than South Africa. As far as research impact is concerned “Plant Science” research in South Africa is rated “fair” in the Schubert-Glänzel-Braun scale, whilst “Dairy and Animal Science” and “Veterinary” research are rated “poor”.

Notizen: Abstract This article analyzes the production and diffusion of the scientific products of sixty-one researchers in soil sciences belonging to ORSTOM. In a period corresponding to two scientific generations we have observed important changes in writing and publishing habits. Non-published reports have lost importance while article production has grown. Also there is a noteworthy growth of the number of presentations at meetings, most of them international scientific congresses. The article shows the result of a factor analysis of their production that allows us to identify seven different types of behavior. We have stressed a series of elements explaining these different types. The possible predominance of a nationally oriented production behavior can be mainly explained by easy access to publication, sufficient appropriateness to the kind of data studied, and correct recognition by scientific peers. Finally we suggest that this typology can be used for analytical purposes in order to study the growth and publication patterns of Third World science.

Notizen: Abstract So far all the formulas or equations for the bibliographic scattering have been derived or formulated through item approach. As such, the selection is not randomised and there can not be any empty source. A source approach has been presented here with minimum of assumptions and conditions. An equation of scattering distribution is derived. If there areM sources andN items, the probability or the relative frequency of the sources withith group items is given byW(i) KM −i=C M −i exp(γM+βM). Suggestions and procedures for experimental verifications have been sketched. Derivations from Bose-Einstein statistics with Gibrat's law1 2 have been discussed and compared.

Notizen: Abstract This paper reports findings from a study on the perceptions of work climate and the patters of relationships between work climate dimensions and performance of research and development units in six countries. The study is based on the analysis of the subset of date collected in Argentina, Egypt, India, Republic of Korea, Poland and UkSSR for the second round of International Comparative Study on the Organization and Performance of Research Units. The following dimensions of work climate have been usec: morale, openness, job satisfaction, work contacts, career opportunities, satisfaction with supervisor, information on research plans, research autonomy. Stepwise regression analyses were carrier out separately for each country and also on global sample to find out the important dimensions of work climate in explaining the variations in the performance of R&D units. The set of work climate dimensions are related separately for two different measures of performance of research units, viz. (1) scientific effectiveness; and (2) user-oriented effectiveness. The implications of this study for management of research and development groups are discussed.

Notizen: Abstract Lectins, the carbohydrate binding proteins, have emerged as indispensable biological tools in the last decade. Research contibutions covering the period 1954–1982 on different aspects of lectins were collected since the introduction of the term ‘Lectin’ in 1954. In the present communication we have made a bibliometric analysis of the growth of the literature on lectins, the trend of authorship of papers on lectins, and scattering phenomena. We have also identified the main international channels of communication of the results of lectin research.

Notizen: Abstract We argue that productivity is a phenomenon which takes on various meanings in different contexts. Reliability coefficients of six scales of productivity, four of which have been used byAndrews and/or byPelz andAndrews, are estimated in 28 work contexts using data on 224 R & D teams. The results support the argument.

Notizen: Abstract The validity of bibliometric indicators as a monitor of the impact and usefulness of scientific research is examined by comparing the scientific performance of cum laude and non-cum laude degree holders in chemistry (N=237), from five years before their graduation to four years afterwards. Papers of cum laudes were cited more frequently than those of non-cum laudes from three years before graduation until one year after graduation. Two to three years after graduation, the short-term impact per paper was no longer significantly different for both groups. A similar pattern was found with regard to productivity. Little evidence was found in favor of the Ortega hypothesis and the Matthew effect. The results support the concurrent validity of bibliometric indicators with peer review indicators of quality of the research project.