«Can scientific methods be directed toward science itself? How did scientists, scientific documents, and their bibliographic links come to be regarded as mathematical variables in abstract models of scientific communication? What is the role of quantitative analyses of scientific and technical documentation in current policy and management? Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis: From the Science Citation Index to Cybermetrics answers these questions through a comprehensive overview of theories, techniques, concepts, and applications in the interdisciplinary and steadily growing fields of bibliometrics.
Since citation indexes came into the limelight during the mid-1960s and as their predominance has continued to grow, extending recently to the World Wide Web, citation networks and citation analyses have become increasingly important for several distinct research fields. This book brings to the forefront the cross-disciplinary links among a range of diverse fields (sociology, philosophy, mathematics, politics) that intersect at the crossroads of citation analysis. Through a discursive and interdisciplinary approach, De Bellis provides an accessible entry point for anyone who wants to become familiar with this important, albeit increasingly complex, area of information science known as bibliometrics.»
De Bellis, N. (2009). Bibliometrics and citation analysis: from the science citation index to cybermetrics. Scarecrow Press.