Derek J. de Solla Price (1922–1983)

PDFSO1 | Throughout the book, its author is mindful of the distant as well as the immediate antecedents of his own approach to the historiography and sociology of science. He invokes the attitudes and practices of that inveterate nineteenth-century measurer of many things, Sir Francis Galton, just as he alludes to Sir William Petty, whose systematic study of bills of mortality in the seventeenth century inaugurated what he described as "political arithmetic." It is symbolically apt, therefore, that in an address to the New York Academy of Sciences a decade ago, Price should have elected the title "The Political Arithmetic of Science Policy.'' Himself passionately devoted to the taking of measurements "drawn from many numerical indicators of the various fields and aspects of science,'' Derek Price can be described, in an almost inevitable eponymous metaphor, as the William-Petty-and-the-Francis-Galton of the historiography and sociology of science | "we can say that 80 to 90 percent of all the scientists that have ever lived are alive now. " | My approach will be to deal statistically, in a not very mathematical fashion, with general problems of the shape and size of science and the ground rules governing the growth and behavior of science-in-the-large. That is to say, I shall not discuss any part of the detail of scientific discoveries, their use, and interrelations. I shall not even discuss specific scientists. Rather, treating science as a measurable entity, I shall attempt to develop a calculus of scientific manpower, literature, talent, and expenditure on a national and on international scale. From such a calculus I hope to analyze what it is that is essentially new in the present age of Big Science, distinguishing it from the former state of Little Science. | The terms Big Science and Little Science are notable |

CONTENTS

FOREWORD, BY ROBERT K. MERTON AND EUGENE GARFIELD vii
PREFACE TO LITTLE SCIENCE, BIG SCIENCE XV
"PRICE'S CITATION CLASSIC" xix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxi

1. PROLOGUE TO A SCIENCE OF SCIENCE 1
-- Figure 1.1. Total Number of Scientific Journals and Abstract Journals Founded, as a Function of Date
-- Figure 1.2. Cumulative Number of Abstracts in Various Scientific Fields, from the Beginning of the Abstract Service to Given Date
-- Figure 1.3. Growth of Scientific Manpower and of General Population in the United States
-- Figure 1.4. Total Number of Physics Abstracts Published Since January 1, 1900
-- Figure 1.5. General Form of the Logistic Curve
-- Figure 1.6. Growth in Length of a Beanstalk as a Function of Age
-- Figure 1.7. Ways in Which Logistic Growth May React to Ceiling Conditions
-- Figure 1.8. Logistic Growth of Raw Material Production, Showing Oscillation on Attaining Ceiling Conditions
-- Figure 1.9. Number of Universities Founded in Europe
-- Figure 1.10. The Rate of Increase of Operating Energy in Particle Accelerators
-- Figure 1.11. Number of Chemical Elements Known as a Function of Date
2. GALTON REVISITED 30
3. INVISIBLE COLLEGES AND THE AFFLUENT SCIENTIFIC COMMUTER 56
4. POLITICAL STRATEGY FOR BIG SCIENTISTS 82
5. NETWORKS OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 103
6. COLLABORATION IN AN INVISIBLE COLLEGE 119
7. MEASURING THE SIZE OF SCIENCE 135
8. CITATION MEASURES OF HARD SCIENCE, SOFT SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND NONSCIENCE 155
9 SOME STATISTICAL RESULTS FOR THE NUMBERS OF AUTHORS IN THE STATES OK THE UNITED STATES AND THE NATIONS OF IMF WORLD 180
10. STUDIES IN SCIENTOMETRICS, PART 1: TRANSIENCE AND CONTINUANCE IN SCIENTIFIC AUTHORSHIP 206
11. STUDIES IN SCIENTOMETRICS, PART 2: THE RELATION BETWEEN SOURCE AUTHOR AND CITED AUTHOR POPULATIONS 227
12. OF SEALING WAX AND STRING 237
13. THE CITATION CYCLE 254
14. "PRICES CITATION CYCLE," BY EUGENE GARFIELD 271
15. Index pg. 287

SA - https://www.librarything.com/work/32188758/book/263225041 | https://www.librarything.com/work/28622/book/261885605 | https://www.librarything.com/work/98552/book/261462414 | https://www.librarything.com/work/31734586/book/258482799 | https://www.librarything.com/work/31524745/book/256042217 |
RT - Research
BT - Culture
NT - Publication Strategies
UF - A data-driven perspective of the scientific community publications through the years via graphs.
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