Thinkers · Science Studies
Eugene Garfield (1925–2017)
Citation indexing and the quantitative study of scientific literature.
Overview
Garfield proposed citation indexes for science in 1955, arguing that listing the later papers that cite a work would help researchers trace ideas and evaluate a work’s impact; the article also uses the phrase “impact factor.” He directed the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia. With Robert K. Merton he wrote the foreword to the 1986 edition of Derek de Solla Price’s Little Science, Big Science, calling Price the father of scientometrics.