Ranking of scientists – a new approach
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007184 |
| Pages | 622-628 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | B.K. Sen,T.A. Pandalai,Aruna Karanjai |
RESEARCH BRIEF
RANKING OF SCIENTISTS – A NEW APPROACH
B.K. SEN
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology
University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
T.A. PANDALAI
ARUNA KARANJAI
National Centre on Bibliometrics, INSDOC, New Delhi - 110067, India
A formula for the ranking of scientists based on diachronous cita-
tion counts is proposed. The paper generalises the fact that the
citation generation potential (CGP) is not the same for all papers, it
differs from paper to paper, and also to a certain extent depends on
the subject domain of the papers. The method of ranking proposed
in no way replaces peer review. It merely acts as an aid for peers to
help them arrive at a better judgement.
INTRODUCTION
One of the off-shoots of the Renaissance was the emergence of learned societies
in Europe from the second half of the sixteenth century. Accademia Secretorum
Naturae, established in 1560 in Naples by della Porta, was the earliest of such
learned societies. Thereafter, Accademia dei Lincei was founded in Rome in
1603, Accademia del Cimento in Florence in 1651, the Royal Society of London
in 1662, Académie des Sciences in France in 1666, and so on [1].
Another offshoot of the Renaissance was the emergence of periodicals which
in many cases came about by the need felt by the members of the learned societies
to disseminate the results of their research.
Le Journal des Sçavans, the first sci-
entific periodical in the real sense of the term, was started in January 1665 in
France, followed by Philosophical Transactions that appeared in May 1665
in England. Afterwards periodicals appeared in various parts of Europe and by the
end of the century there were as many as thirty-five titles comprising twenty jour-
nals, eight proceedings, two reviews, two almanacs, and three others [2].
When the journals started receiving research articles from various scientists, the
need arose to verify the research results and the claims made. For example, in
October 1776 when Antoni van Leeuwenhoek sent a letter to the Royal Society of
London describing his discovery of ‘little animals’ with the crude microscope he
invented, many members of the Royal Society simply could not believe it thereby
obliging Leeuwenhoek to procure ‘written attestations to the reliability of his
observations from ministers, jurists, and medical men’ [3]. To avoid the recurrence
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Journal of Documentation, Vol. 54, No. 5, December 1998
© Aslib, The Association for Information Management.
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1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior
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Email: pubs@aslib.co.uk, WWW: http://www.aslib.co.uk/aslib
622
Journal of Documentation, vol. 54, no. 5, December 1998, pp. 622–628
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