4.0445 Citation Indexes (1/10)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 30 Aug 90 23:22:27 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0445. Thursday, 30 Aug 1990.
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 90 22:27:37 PDT
From: STEVEC@FHCRCVM
Subject: citations
I did my dissertation on Garrett Hardin's thought and an interesting
discovery (I used the citation indexes) was that his article, "The
Tragedy of the Commons" was cited in every major discipline/science and
uncritically applauded. It was one of the 100 most cited articles
between 1969 and 1977. Even Hardin lamented that inspite of the
citations it was seldom discussed! And when the same ideas appeared 18
years later under an editor's title "Living on a Lifeboat," nearly
everyone who cited it attacked him and few cited it!So, as others said a
citation by itself may not amount to much, and the reaction may be more
to the package (title) than to the actual thought in the cited article.