LET THE CREDITS ROLL: A PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE PLAYED BY MENTORS AND TRUSTED ASSESSORS IN DISCIPLINARY FORMATION
| Pages | 227-239 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026878 |
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| Author | BLAISE CRONIN |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THE
Journal of Documentation
VOLUME 47 NUMBER
3
SEPTEMBER 1991
LET THE CREDITS ROLL: A PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF
THE ROLE PLAYED BY MENTORS AND TRUSTED ASSESSORS IN
DISCIPLINARY FORMATION
BLAISE CRONIN
School of Library and
Information
Science,
Indiana
University,
Bloomington
Indiana,
47405,
USA
Many scholarly articles acknowledge input from colleagues, mentors and
trusted assessors. This study explores the social function and cognitive
significance of acknowledgements. A six category typology was developed and
applied to 444 acknowledgements which were carried by research articles in
JASIS
(1970-1990). It is proposed that acknowledgements and citations should
be used conjointly in the assessment of research performance and in disciplin-
ary exegesis.
INTRODUCTION
CITATION ANALYSIS deals with data which describe formal patterns of
scholarly communication: publications are referenced, frequency of citation
recorded and a variety of impact measures derived. Citation counting
provides analysts with a convenient, if not quite perfect, means of calibrating
influence and eminence. Citation is, of course, a social process [1]; an
institutionalised mechanism for dispensing credits and recognition to peers.
The citing of one author by another is usually assumed to be a significant
event, and the more significant events recorded in favour of a particular
author, the greater that author's presumed influence or prestige. However,
citation counts are an incomplete register of social influence, a point which has
not gone entirely unnoticed: 'science has evolved no mechanisms for
acknowledging influence in papers except for the occasional "pers. comm."
and "acknowledgements" which are usually not included in the data from
which citation analysts work'
[2].
It would
be
revealing to know
to
what extent
the exclusion of acknowledgements from the academic audit process dis-
criminates against
those whose
influence
is
registered or reflected
in ways
other
than, or supplementary to, publication and subsequent citation. Indeed, the
Journal of Documentation, vol. 47, no. 3, September
1991,
pp. 227-239.
227
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