Beyond the citation debate: Towards a sociology of measurement technologies and their use in science policy
Abstract
Despite the frequent, recurrent and often damaging criticisms of citation analysis in recent years, the use of citations continues apace. In the context of contemporary anxieties about the increasing use of ‘performance indicators’, this paper argues that it is important to understand the sources of resistance to criticisms of the use of citations. A series of insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge are used to develop the basis for a sociological understanding of the citation debate. In particular, it is suggested that when construed as a measurement technology, we can see how the very system of measuring and manipulating citations redefines the phenomenon it is supposed to measure. Finally, some brief thoughts are offered on possible practical responses to the increasing institutionalisation of citation analysis.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Not all citations signal the same level of intellectual indebtedness towards the cited article.
“However, not all citations may signal the same level of intellectual indebtedness towards the cited article (Gar fi eld, 1972; Woolgar, 1991).”
From Unraveling scientific impact: Citation types in marketing journals (2015) · cites this paper as Woolgar, 1991
Cited by
Sorted by citations
What do citation counts measure? A review of studies on citing behavior
Bornmann, L., & Daniel, H. (2008) · Journal of Documentation · doi:10.1108/00220410810844150 · Cited by 1,607 · see citing works
Leydesdorff, L. (1998) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/bf02458391 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
Unraveling scientific impact: Citation types in marketing journals
Stremersch, S., Camacho, N., Vanneste, S., & Verniers, I. (2015) · International Journal of Research in Marketing · doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2014.09.004 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Luukkonen, T. (1997) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/bf02461121 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
- Authors
- Woolgar, S.
- Affiliations
- University of West London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Woolgar, Steve
- ORCID
- Woolgar, Steve
- Venue
- Science and Public Policy
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1991-10
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 319-326
- ISSN
- 0302-3427 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-5430
- OpenAlex
- W2513379470
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 8 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science and Public Policy (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Research, Science, and Academia
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Web visibility and informetrics
- Keywords
- citation analysis, measurement technology, performance indicators, sociology of scientific knowledge, science policy, research evaluation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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