Institutionalization and professionalization of bibliometrics

Abstract

This article offers an overview as to what extent bibliometrics is an institutionalized field of research and to what extent it is a professional practice. After different dimensions of institutionalization (stabilization of a cognitive core, evolvement of a social structure, development of a communication network) have been reviewed an overview of the dimension of professionalization is given. These include the formation of a specific type of expertise and the establishment of a claim for jurisdiction for a social problem. The article concludes with the following diagnosis: although bibliometics has been established as a field of research, the process of professionalization has to be characterized as incomplete. The reason for this has both to do with missing tracks of formal qualifications together with the proliferation of automated bibliometric tools to non-experts.