Reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS) of Eugene Garfield's publications

Lutz Bornmann; Robin Haunschild; Loet Leydesdorff

doi:10.1007/s11192-017-2608-3

Reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS) of Eugene Garfield's publications

Scientometrics. 2018;114(2):439-448. doi: 10.1007/s11192-017-2608-3. Epub 2017 Dec 5.

Authors

Lutz Bornmann¹, Robin Haunschild², Loet Leydesdorff³

Affiliations

¹ 1Division for Science and Innovation Studies, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Hofgartenstr. 8, 80539 Munich, Germany.
² 2Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstr. 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
³ 3Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, PO Box 15793, 1001 NG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Which studies, theories, and ideas have influenced Eugene Garfield's scientific work? Recently, the method reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS) has been introduced, which can be used to answer this and related questions. Since then, several studies have been published dealing with the historical roots of research fields and scientists. The program CRExplorer (http://www.crexplorer.net) was specifically developed for RPYS. In this study, we use this program to investigate the historical roots of Eugene Garfield's oeuvre.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Cited references; Eugene Garfield; Historical roots; Pioneer; RPYS; Reference publication year spectroscopy.