Citation Profiles and Research Dynamics

Abstract

What can we learn about research dynamics from ‘citation profiles’, a free product offered by Google Scholar? In this contribution we inspect citation profiles for a number of scientometrics scholars. The selected profiles range from highly prestigious scholars to moderate and lower stature colleagues, and from active and highly productive to inactive or former colleagues. Author citation profiles are compared to a theoretically expected pattern, based on scientometrics theories about publication delay and the immediacy effect in actively growing research fronts. The found profiles show a general increase of author citation levels from the millennium onwards, pointing to raised interest and activity in the field. Contrary to expectations based on the immediacy effect, we find prolonged high citation scores of no-longer-productive authors. Comparison of the author citation levels shows a lasting dominance of the founding fathers of the field. Explaining these patterns, requires both focused and explorative elements in the selective attention of citing authors in a community of researchers. The elements combining in citation dynamics are threefold: (1) fast consumption of novel contributions targeted to audiences in research fronts, explaining immediacy; (2) ritual referencing to basic ideas and methods, as paradigm focal points, explaining prolonged high citation; and (3) explorative searching, explaining (renewed) citation of earlier or remote work.