This week was about citation analysis and bibliometrics. I have a friend who is a professor in the social sciences and I've heard her talk about citation counts before - it really is a big deal when you're going up for tenure. Luckily, she gets cited all over the place, so I'm sure she'll have no problem when the time comes for her. After reading the articles, it's easy to see how citations could be manipulated for good or for evil...just like anything else in the world, I guess. (Jeez, cynical much? Sorry.)
The part I found the most interesting was the questions addressed by citation studies: i.e. the author's motivation for citing, the relationship between the cited works, the reason(s) for citing, differences in citation practices by discipline, etc. Also, the assumptions of most citation studies - all the works cited have been used, the cited work exhibits quality, only the best possible works have been used, the cited work is related to the citing work, and that all citations are equal. It's a lot to think about, that's for sure. Like evaluation and experimental research (last week), this is not an exact science either because of all the human factors involved. Regardless, it's a pretty interesting thing to study, I think - to see the patterns and relationships between works/people/places/etc.
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