Library Assignment - Essay Example

Growth Rate in Scientific Publications as Speculated by the SCI In the year 1961, Derek J. de Solla Price printed the main quantitative data regarding the growth of science. The publication covered the duration from 1650 to 1950. The major source of information used was the statistics of scientific journals, and they showed a yearly growth rate of approximately 5.6%. This growth rate is said to have doubled that one of 13 years prior (Garfield, 23). The total number of journals verified for the year 1950 was approximately 60,000 while the estimate for the year 2000 was approximately 1,000,000. Price made use of the figures of all scientific journals that had been there within the past duration and not the journals presently being published. All the same, this was never the key source of error. In the year, 1963 Price proceeded to work making use of several data in abstract compendia for the years 1907 to 1960.
The study conducted in the years 1907 and 2007 by use of available statistics from several literature databases, Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and the Science Citation Index (SCI) have indicated findings relating to the Growth rate of scientific publications. Significantly, the intention of the study was to give information regarding the growth and development of Scientific Publications (Garfield, 27). The study is descriptive in that; it gives descriptive data on which the research was based on and also includes the statistical processes used in the description of the population in the study. The findings from the study assist in organization and data description. The variables involved were the data from the traditional scientific publishing.
Traditional scientific publishing; publications in peer-reviewed journals, is still considered to be increasing though there are large variance between some sectors. There exist no signs that the growth rate has decreased within the past 50 years. At the same time, publications making use of channels, for instance, open archives, home pages and conference proceedings are reported to be developing at a higher rate. The growth rate for the SCI was compensating a declining section of the traditional scientific literature (Garfield, 29). There also exist some open signs that the compensation by the SCI is generally minimal in a section of the scientific areas with the largest development rate involving engineering and computer sciences. From the reading, it is obvious that the populace being considered are the humans, and this is with respect to how they rate the scientific publications. The common characteristics of this particular population are that they possess an almost equal reading ability with so high IQ. Additionally, this population has different views towards both scientific and traditional publications.
The technique applied in the collection of data relating to growth of scientific publications were open access archives, the conference proceedings and already published publications existing on the internet. The key role of these techniques of data collection was to show that there is an increasing trend of use of scientific publications particularly in scientific fields. This data was partially reflected in the scientific databases. Apart from the above-mentioned methods of data collection, the study as well applied the use of a statistical technique of data collection (Garfield, 31). The technique was majorly descriptive and entailed the use of sample surveys. These were surveys conducted with the aim of getting information from a sample of the population, so as to approximate populace attributes.
In conclusion, therefore, a new publication channels according to the results challenge the application of large databases in the quantification of scientific output or productivity and the growth rate of science. And this is because of the reducing coverage. The challenge is problematic, and the fact that SCI has been involved as the principal source for science pointers based on citation and publication numbers is a disturbing situation. The limited information present regarding social sciences indicate that the development rate of SSCI was so low and that its coverage was decreasing with time (Garfield, 33). From my perspective, therefore, I agree with the conclusions since the decreasing coverage of the citation databases is considered to be problematizing the use of scientific publications.
Reference
Garfield E. Citation indexing: Its theory and application in science. Technology and humanities. New York: Wiley; (1979). Print. Read More