are methodological papers more cited than theoretical or empirical ones

8/8/2019 Are Methodological Papers More Cited Than Theoretical or Empirical Ones

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Scientometrics, Vol. 5. No. 4 (1983) 21 1- 21 8

A R E M E T H O D O L O G I C A L P A P E R S M O R E C I T E D T H A NT H E O R E T I C A L O R E M P I R I C A L O N E S ?T H E C A S E O F S O C I O L O G Y

B. C. PERIT ZGraduate School o f Library and Archive Studies,Hebrew University, Jerusalem, P.O.B. 503, 91904 (Israel)

(Received September 2, 1982)

The objective o f this study is to f 'md ou t whether methodological papers published incore sociological journals are more frequ ently cited than theoretical or empirical(substantive) p apers. The results indicate tha t such is indeed the ease; moreo ver, this resultis not due to a few "outlying", very highly cited papers. These findings are based on allthe m ethodological and theoretical papers, and a sample of the empirical papers, publishedin 1972 and 1973 in three high-impact sociological journals. The citation cou nts for thesepapers were compiled from the Social Science Citation lndex fo r the yea rs 1972-1981 .The d ata w ere analyzed separately f or each journ al and y ear of publication.

Introduct ion

A r e p a p e r s d e a li n g w i t h m e t h o d o l o g i c a l i ss ue s m o r e f r e q u e n t l y c i t e d t h a n o t h e rp a p e r s ? T h e q u e s t i o n i s o f i n t e r e s t b o t h i n t r in s i c a l l y a n d b e c a u s e it s a n s w e r m a y i d e n -t i f y a c o n f o u n d i n g v a r ia b le w h i c h n e e d s t o b e c o n t r o l l e d i n c o m p a r a t i v e c i t a t i o n a n a -lyses . GarfieM 1 d i s c u s s e s t h e i s s u e a t s o m e l e n g t h . I n c h e m i s t r y t h e o r e t i c a l a n d m e -t h o d o l o g i c a l p a p er s d o m i n a t e i n t h e l is ts o f m o s t f r e q u e n t l y c i t e d p a pe r s . 2 - a H o w -e v er , i t i s n o t c le a r w h e t h e r t h e " o r d i n a r y " , n o n - e x c e p t i o n a l , m e t h o d o l o g i c a l p a p e r a l sof ar e s b e t t e r t h a n t h e a v e ra g e p a p e r. F u r t h e r m o r e , t o o u r k n o w l e d g e , n o s u c h s t u d y h a sb e e n c a r r ie d o u t f o r a n y o f t h e s o c ia l sc i e n ce s .I t s e e m e d u s e f u l t o c a r r y o u t a n i n v ds t ig a t io n o f t h is t y p e f o r s o c i o l o g y , f o r t w o

9 r e a s o n s: a ) t h e f i e l d h a s a c o n s i d e r a b l e l i t e r a tu r e o f s e l f - e x a m i n a t i o n w i t h r e g a r d t og r o w t h , u s e, p u b l i c a t io n p a t t e r n s , c i t at i o n s, e t c . o f it s s c ie n t if i c o u t p u t ( a f e w o f t h er e le v a n t p a p e rs a re m e n t i o n e d i n th e n e x t s e c t i o n ) ; a n d b ) b o t h m e t h o d o l o g y a n d t h e o -r y a re a r e a s o f m a j o r i n t e r e s t t o m o s t w o r k i n g s o c i o l o g i s t s .

T h e m a i n p u r p o s e o f th i s p a p e r i s t o l o o k a t t h e f o l l o w i n g h y p o t h e s i s : m e t h o d o -l og i ca l p a p e rs t e n d t o b e m o r e f r e q u e n t l y c i t e d t h a n b o t h e m p i r i c al a n d t h e o r e t ic a lp a p e rs . I t is a ls o h y p o t h e s i z e d t h a t t h i s d if f e re n c e i s n o t d u e m e r e l y t e a f e w e x c e p -t i o n a l p a p e r s w i t h v e r y h i g h c it a t i o n c o u n t s .Sdentometrics 5 (1983) 2 1 1

1"


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B. C. PERIT Z: ARE METHODO LOGICALPAPERS MO RE CITEDTh e above hyp o t hes i s w i ll be i nves t i ga ted he r e on l y i n r ega rd t o pape r s pu b l i shed i n

h i gh i mpac t , "gen e ra l " soc i o log i ca l j ou rna l s . S i nce t heore t i ca l and m e t hodo l og i ca l"p rob lems o f t en a r e r e l evan t t o m ore t han one sub f i e ld o f soc i o l ogy , i t is no t c l earw h e t he r , and how , t he spec i a li zed j ou rna l s cou l d be i nc l uded i n such a s t udy .

MethodsTh e sociologica l journ als se lec ted fo r th i s s tudy are : the American Sociological

Review (ASR), the American Journal of Sociology (AJS) and Social Forces (SF). T h e s eare , accord ing to the Social Science Citation Index Reports, 1979 , 4 t he t h r ee gene ra l( i.e . non-specia l ized) sociologica l jou rna ls w i th the h ighes t im pac t fac to rs ; in 1979 the sefac to rs were , respect ive ly: 3 .0 , 2 .2 , and 1 .0 . The i r ranks am ong a l l soc ia l sc ience journ alsw ere 13 , 35 , and 155 , r e spec t ive l y . Ea r l i e r s t ud ie s had r ecogn i zed these a s t he j ou rna l smo s t va l ued by soc i o log i s ts s and mo s t c i t ed i n co re jou rna l s . 6 O t he r b i b l i ome t r i cs t ud ie s w ere based on t he s ame t h r ee j ou rna l s , 7 -8 w i t h t he pos s ib l e add i t i on of RuralSociology, 9 - 1o o r on t he f i r st t w o am ong t hem . i l

The yea r s o f pub l i ca t i on chosen fo r t he source pape r s w ere 1972 and 1973 . A ccord -ing to the Social Science Citation Index Reports, 1979, th i s i s s ti ll w i th in th e "hal f -l i f e " f o r these j ou rna l s (m ore t han 10 yea r s ) , a f ind i ng conf i rm ed by ou r da t a ( s ee ,Resul t s ). Nev er the less , i t was fe l t tha t , i f one were to t ak e even ear l ie r ye ars o f publ ica-t i on fo r t he sou rce pape r s , one ' s re su l t s mi gh t be a f f ec t ed by l ong- t e rm t r ends .The bas ic c lass i f ica t ion o f papers was s imi lar to tha t of Brown and Gilmartin. 11 T h emai n ca t egor i e s o f pape r s un de r s t u dy w ere : me t ho do l og i ca l , theo re t i ca l and empi r i ca l.

The f i r s t ca t egory con t a i ns pape r s dea l ing w i t h m e t ho ds o f s t udy des ign , da t a co l lec -t i on , and ana l ysi s. Pape r s t ha t u se empi r i ca l da t a i n o rde r t o i ll u s t ra t e o r d em ons t r a t eme t ho do l og i ca l po i n t s w ere i nc l uded i n t h i s g roup .

The secon d ca t egory con t a i ns pape r s t ha t d is cuss con cep t s and gene ra l theo re t i ca ls chemat a . I t co r r e sponds gene ra ll y t o g rou p 12 i n t he c l a s s if ica t ion o f Brown an dGilmartin.

The t h i rd ca t egory i nc l udes all i nves ti ga t ions w h i ch use empi r i ca l da t a o f w h a t eve rsource o r na t u r e . I t co r r e sponds t o ca t egory 2 " s t ud i e s p r e sen t i ng subs t an ti ve r e sea r ch"in the Brown-Gilmartin classif icat ion.

T h e b o d y o f p a p e r s t o b e s t u d ie d i n c l u d e d o n l y " o r d i n a r y " j o u r n a l a r t ic le s : b o o krev iew s, n o t e s , com me nt a r i e s , deba t e s - inc l ud i ng au t h or ' s r ep li e s-w ere exc l u ded f rom t heou t se t . A t o t a l o f 314 pape r s w as t hus l e f t f o r i nvest i ga ti on . F rom t h i s po pu l a t i on a llpapers tha t d id no t f i t wel l in to these bas ic c a tegor ies were a l so exc lude d:

Th i r t een pape r s dea l ing w i t h t he h i s t o r y o f soc i o logy and t he h i s t o ry o f soc i aland p o l it ica l i deas . These pape r s had t o be exc l ude d s ince a c i t a t i on o f t hem mi gh tconce i vab l y be a p ro xy fo r r e f e r ence t o t he o r ig i na l l i t e ra t u r e t he y dea l w i t h .

212 Scientometrics 5 (1983)


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B. C. PERITZ: ARE M ETHODO LOGICALPAPERS MORE CITEDF i v e p a p e r s w h i c h m a k e b o t h s u b s t a n ti v e a n d m e t h o d o l o g i c a l p o i n t s .E l e v e n p a p e r s w h i c h a r e c o n c e r n e d w i t h b o t h s u b s t a n t iv e a n d t h e o r e t i c a l c o n -

c e p t u a l d e v e l o p m e n t s .I t i s, o f c o u r s e , r e a li z e d t h a t n o w a d a y s m o s t e m p i r ic a l p a p e r s a re g r o u n d e d o n s o m eb o d y o f t h e o r y a n d u s e m e t h o d s o f s o m e s o p h i s t i c a ti o n . H o w e v e r , o n l y i n t h e f e wp a p e r s m e n t i o n e d a b o v e t h e m a i n t h r u s t o f t h e p a p e r w a s s u b s t a n ti v e a s w e l l as t h e o -r e t i ca l o r me thodo log ica l .

Twen ty -one pape r s were found to be unc l a s s i f i ab l e fo r s eve ra l r ea sons . Th i s g roupinc luded , " im pres s io n i s t i c " ana lyses o f anecd o ta l m a te r i a l a s we l l a s a va r i e ty o fpape r s t ha t d id no t r ea l l y r epo r t on new re sea rch : e s says , l i t e r a tu re r ev i ews , inv i t edaddres ses , s t a t e o f t he a r t pap e r s and the l i ke .T h i s p r o c e s s o f e x c lu s i o n l e f t t h e f o l l o w i n g n u m b e r s o f p a p e r s :Theo re t i ca l : 52

M ethodo log ica l : 36Em pi r i ca l : 176

O f t h e l a t t e r a r a n d o m s a m p l e o f a b o u t o n e t h i r d w a s ta k e n , s e p a r a t e l y f r o m e a c h o f t h eth ree j ou rn a l s , t hus l eav ing 62 empi r i ca l pape r s in t he ana lys i s . The to t a l nu m be r o fp a p e r s a n a l y z e d t h u s a m o u n t e d t o 1 5 0 p a p e r s .

C i t a t io n s t o e a c h o f t h e 1 5 0 p a p e r s w e r e id e n t i f ie d i n t h e y e a r l y v o l u m e s o f t h e So-cialScience Citation Index 12 fo r eve ry yea r f rom 1972 to 1980 , a s we l l a s i n t he f i r s ti ssue o f 1981 - t he l a s t ava i lab l e t o t he au tho r a t t he t im e o f wr i ti ng .

Resul t s

T h e b a s i c d at a o n t h e n u m b e r o f p a p e rs a n d n u m b e r s o f t i m e s t h e y w e r e c i te d a r eg iven in Tab le 1 . The 150 pape r s s tud i ed w ere c i ted 33 39 t imes .

T a b l e 2 g iv e s t h e f r e q u e n c y d i s t r ib u t i o n o f th e p a p e r s b y t h e n u m b e r s o f t im e s t h e yw e r e c it e d . C le a r ly , th e c i t a t i o n c o u n t s o f th e m e t h o d o l o g y p a p e r s w e r e m u c h h i g h e rt h a n t h o s e o f t h e o t h e r t w o c a t e g or ie s . A l m o s t o n e h a l f , 4 7 % o f t h e m e t h o d o l o g yp a p e r s w e r e c i te d t w e n t y t i m e s o r m o r e , a s a g a i n st l es s t h a n o n e t h i rd i n t h e o t h e r t w oc a te g o r ie s . A t t h e o t h e r e n d o f th e s c a le , a b o u t 2 0 % o f th e m e t h o d o l o g y p a p e r s w e r ec i te d le s s t h a n t e n t i m e s , a g a in s t a b o u t 4 0 % o f t h e o t h e r t w o c a t e g o r i es - r e m a r k a b l yf e w p a p e r s h a v e r e m a i n e d u n c i te d .

T h e c o m p a r i s o n o f t h e f r e q u e n c ie s in T a b l e 2 d o e s n o t c o n t r o l f o r t h e p o t e n t i a l l yc o n f o u n d i n g v a r ia b le s : t h e j o u r n a l a n d t h e y e a r o f p u b l i c a t i o n . I n p a r t i c u la r , t h e f a c tt h a t m e t h o d o l o g y p a p e r s a r e re l a ti v e ly le s s f r e q u e n t i n Social Forces, the l e a s t c i te d o fthe t h r ee j ou rna l s , needs t o be t aken in to acc oun t . Th i s will be done in t he ne x t tw otables .Scientometrics 5 (1983) 213


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B. C. PERITZ: ARE METHODOLOGICALPAPERS MORE CITED

Journal

Table 1Papers in study and numbers of times cited, by journal , year and category

ASR 1972ASR 1973TotalAJS 1972AJS 1973TotalSF 1972SF 1973TotalGrandTotal

TheoreticalTimesPapers cited

10 2388 12518 36310 1898 23218 42110 806 3316 11352 897

MethodologicalTimesPapers cited

7 366l0 21217 5784 2639 236

13 4991 185 866 104

36 1181

EmpiricalTimestapers cited

14 3639 14923 5128 16512 357

20 5229 12710 100

19 22762 1261

TotalPapers Timescited

31 96727 48658 145322 61729 82551 144220 22521 21941 444

150 3339Table 2Papers in study by category and number of times cited

Number of times cited I Theoretical Methodological Empirical Total01-910-1920-2930-3940+

Total

2171881652

71255736

2241774862

44847201021150

Table 3 presents the m ean num ber s of times the papers were cited; according to.their category, jou rna l and year of publ icat ion. Since means are sensitive to o utly ingobservations, they were also recalculated after exclusio n of the latter. "Outli ers" werearbitrarily defined as papers with 80 or more citations. The means obta ine d after ex-clusion of the outliers are given in brackets.

There were six outly ing papers: 3 in methodo logy (all by the same author), 2 empi-rical and one theoretical. They accou nted for 42%, 20%, and 11% of the citations tomethodological, empirical, and theoretical papers, respectively.

The ma in findings are: on the average, methodological papers were cited m ore of tenthan theoretical an d empirical papers of the same jou rna l and year, whether or not out-214 S c ien to me t r i c s 5 ( 1 98 3 )


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B. C . PERITZ: A RE M ETHODOLOG ICAL PAPERS M ORE CITED

Table 3Mean* number o f t imes c i ted , by journal , year and ca tegoryJourn al Theoretical Methodological Empirical

ASR19721973AJS19721973SF 19721973

23.815.61 8 . 929.0 [19.4]8 . 05 . 5

52.3 [30.3]21.26 3 . 8 [ 2 4 . 0 ]2 6 . 2 [ 1 5 . 0 ]

1 8 . 017.2

25.916.520.6 [11.3]29.8 [17.7]14.110.0

*In brackets: means with ou t outliers

Table 4Median number o f t imes c ited, by journal , ye ar and ca tegoryJourn al Theoretical M ethodological Empirical

ASR19721973A J S19721973SF 19721973

19.5131519

5.55. 5

2613.530141 819

22.58

8 .513.5116. 5

t ie rs a r e e x c l u d e d f r o m t h e c a l cu l a ti o n s. T h e o n l y e x c e p t i o n t o t h i s ar e t h e m e a n s f o rthe American Journal o f Sociology, 1 9 7 3 , w h e r e t h e r e i s t i tt l e d i f f e r e n c e b e t w e e n t h et h r e e c a t e g o r ie s . A l t o g e t h e r t h e r e i s v e r y li t tl e d i f f e r e n c e b e t w e e n t h e m e a n s o f t h e o -r e t i c a l a n d e m p i r i c a l p a p e r s . Social Forces is c i t e d s o m e w h a t l e ss o f t e n t h a n t h e o t h e rt w o j o u r n a l s .

W h e n d e a l i n g w i t h s k e w l y d i s t r i b u t e d v a r i a b l e s i t i s o f t e n m o r e i n s t r u c t i v e t o l o o ka t m e d i a n s r a t h e r t h a n m e a n s . I n t h e p r e s e n t i n s ta n c e t h e m e d i a n s ( p r e s e n t e d i n T a b le4 ) c o n f i r m t h e f i n d in g s o n t h e m e a n s .

T h e d i s pe r s io n o f th e c i t a t io n d a t a c a n b e j u d g e d f r o m T a b l e 5 , w h i c h gi v es s ta n d a r dd e v i at i o ns b y c a t e g o r y , j o u r n a l a n d y e a r . A g a i n , t h e s t a n d a r d d e v i a ti o n s a f t e r e x c l u s i o no f o u t l i e r s a re g iv e n in b r a c k e t s . T h e o u t l i e r s h a v e , o f c o u r s e , a b ig e f f e c t o n t h e s t a n d -$cientomerdcs 5 (1983) 215


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B. C. PERITZ: ARE METHODOLOGICAL PAPERS MORE CITED

Table 5Standard deviation* of number of times cited, by journal, year and categoryJournal Theoretical Methodological Empirical

AS R19721973AJS19721973SF 1972

1973

20.689.4414.1632.41 [19.251

8.143.45

60.74 119.48119.4483.96 [10.82135.13 [10.72]

10.52

17.7213.9727.61 ] 8.67145.43 [19.02114.1813.61

*In brackets: standard deviations without outliers** One paper only

Table 6Number of times papers were cited by category, year of publication and calendar year

Year ofpublication

Year of citation !197219731974197519761977197819791 9 8 01981(Jan. -Apri l)

Total

Theoretical Methodological1972

No. %2 0.431 6.144 8.757 .1.274 4.660 1".860 1.868 3.474 L4.637 7.3

507 100

1973 1972No. i. % No. %

- 7 1.14 L0 20 3.121 5.4 52 8.045 11.5 76 11.755 14.1 80 12.448 12.3 92 14.253 13.6 102 15.873 18.7 90 13.956 14.4 94 14.5

35 9.0 34 5.3390 100 647 100

1973 1972% No.- 71.7 347.1 6812.0 0013.7 9317.2 9215.2 9015.4 8112.7 705.1 20

100 655

Empirical1973

% No.L1 -5 . 2 610.4 2815.3 0014.2 9614.0 6013.7 72

1 2 . 4 8510.7 1123.1 47100 606

%

1.04.616.515.89.911.914.018.5

7.8100

ard deviations. After their exclusion no systematic difference is found between categoriesor journals.

It must be noted that the above data refer to papers which are, mostly, still in themidst of their citation careers. As shown in Table 6, there is no indication that the num-ber of citations to these papers (which were published7-9 years before the closure ofdata collection) is diminishing. Consequently, there is no way of ascertaining whetherthe three categories differ in regard to their "'half-life".21 6 Scientometrics 5 (1983)


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B. C. PERITZ: ARE M ETHODOLOGICALPAPERS MORE CITEDTh e c i t a t i on cou n t s used i n t h is s t udy i nc l ude au t ho r s e l f -c i ta t ions . Th e S o c i a l

S c i e n c e C i t a ti o n I n d e x a l low s one t o d i s t ingu i sh o n l y t hose i ns t ances o f s e l f -c i t a ti on i nw h i c h t h e f i r s t a u t h o r o f t h e c it in g p a p e r w as o n e o f t h e a u t h o r s o f t h e c i t e d p a p e r .The nu m ber o f these s e l f -c i ta t ions w as l ow and t hey w ere un l i ke l y t o a f f ec t the ma i nfmdi ngs . The n um ber s an d pe rcen t ages , by ca t egory , w ere a s f o l low s : me t hod o l og i ca l45 (4 .3% o f c i ta t i ons ) , empi r i ca l 81 (6 . 4% o f c i ta t i ons ) and t heo re t i ca l 39 (4 . 3%) o fc i ta t ions) . In to to there w ere 165 such se l f -c i ta t ions , or 4 .9% o f a ll c i t a tions .

T h e t w o h y p o t h e s e s u n d e r c o n s i d e r a t io n h e r e a r e:a ) tha t m e t hodo l og i ca l pape r s t end t o be c i t ed m o r e o f t e n t h an t heo re t i ca l pape r s

a n d b ) t h a t t h e y t e n d t o b e c i te d m o r e o f t e n t han em pi r ica l pape rs . To t e s t t hese hyp o-t heses on t he bas is o f ou r " sam pl es" t he M ann -W hi t n ey s t a ti s ti c s fo r each j ou rn a l andy e a r o f p u b l i c a t io n w e r e c o m b i n e d a c c o r d i n g t o Van E l t e ren ' s met hod . 13 The r e su l t swere as fo l lows:

M et hodo l og i ca l ve r sus t heore t i ca l z = 1 . 92 P = 0 . 027M ethod ologica l versus em pi r ica l z = 1 .85 P = 0 .03 2

D i s c u s s i o n

Th e p r esen t su rvey i nd i ca te s t ha t me t ho do l og i ca l pape r s t end i ndeed t o be mo rec i t ed t han t heore t i ca l o r empi r ica l pape rs . F u r t he rmo re , t h i s is no t o n l y due t o a f ewhi gh l y c i t ed pape r s - a l t hough t h r ee such s t ud ie s w ere p r e sen t i n ou r s ampl e . O n t hetechnica l s ide the impl ica t ion of th i s f inding i s tha t , in compara t ive c i ta t ion analyses , i tw ill s o m e t i m e s b e n e c e ss a r y to c o n t r o l f o r t h e " c a t e g o r y " ( m e t h o d o l o g i c a l o r o t h e r )o f t he pape r s unde r s t udy . O n t he subs t an t ive s i de t he i mpl i ca t i on i s t ha t t he m e t ho do -l og ica l pape rs pub l i shed i n t he ma i n co re j ou rna l s o f soc i o l ogy a r e be i ng w i de l y used .

I t mu s t be em phas i zed t h a t t hese f i nd i ngs a r e on l y a f ir s t s t ep i n t he i nves t i ga ti on o fme t hodo l og i ca l i npu t s i n t o t he l i te r a t u r e o f t he soc ia l s c iences. Thus , on e w ou l d l i ket o k n o w s o m e t h i n g o n t h e i m p a c t o f t h e m e t h o d o l o g i c al p a p e r s p u b li s h e d i n o t h e rf ie lds and abou t t he ex t en t t o w h i ch t he c i t a t ions t o such pape r s s t ep ac ros s d i sc i p l ina ryboundar i e s . The i nves t iga t i on o f t he i mp ac t o f mono graphs , co l l ec t ive w orks , and pe r i-od i ca ls devo t ed t o me t h ods o f r e sea rch w ou l d a lso be o f i n t e r e s t . F i na l ly - and pe rhap sm o s t i m p o r t a n t l y - o n e s h o u l d n o t a s su m e t h a t a ll re f e re n c e s t o p o i n t s o f m e t h o d o -l ogy com e f rom w orks d evo t ed exc l us ive l y t o m e t hods . I t m i gh t w e l l be t ha t e s sen t i a l lyempi r i ca l , o r even t heore t i ca l , pape r s a r e o f t en c i t ed w i t h r ega rd t o some que s t i on o fme t hod . Th i s sub j ec t cou l d be i nves t iga t ed by l ook i ng in dep t h a t t he ro l e o f t he c i t a-t ions v i s-a-vis the source ar t i c le , a long the l ines sugges ted b y Lip e t z , 14 Hod ges , I sM o ravcs i k and M urugesan , 16 and Sp ieg e l -R6 s ing . 17

Scientometrics 5 (1983) 21 7


8/8

B. C. PERITZ: ARE METHODOLOGICALPAPERS MORE CITED

The way a discipline relates to problems of research me~ odo lo gy is an import antaspect of its intellectua l climate. The present paper is int end ed to provide a startingpoint for citat ion - analyt ic investigations of this aspect in the social sciences.

References

1. E. GARFIELD, Citation Indexing - Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology, andHumanities, John Wiley, New York, 1979, p. 244-246.2. H. G. SMALL, Characteristics of Frequently Cited Papers in Chemistry, Philadelphia, Institutefor Scientific Information, 1974, Final Report on Contract n. NSF-C 975.3. E. GARFIELD, A List of 100 Most Cited Chemical Articles, Current Contents, 10 (9 March

1977) 5-12.4. Social Science Citation Index Reports, 1979, Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia,1980.5. N. D. GLENN, American Sociologists' Evaluations of Sixty-Three Journals, AmericanSociologist, 6 (1971) 289-303.6. N. LIN, C. E. NELSON, Bibliographic Reference Patterns in Core Sociological Journals,1965-1966, American Sociologist, 4 (1969) 47-50.7. M. OROMANER, The Career of Sociological Literature: A Diachronous Study, Social Studiesof Science, 7 (1977) 126-132.8. M. OROMANER, The Diffussion of Core Publications in American Sociology, Journal of theAmerican Society for Information Science, 28 (1977) 34-37.9. N. PATEL, Collaboration in the Professional Growth of American Sociology, Social Science

Information, 12 (1973) 77-92.10. M. OROMANER, Collaboration and Impact: The Career of Multi Authored Publications,Social Science Information, 14 (1975) 147-155.11. J. S. BROWN, B. G. GILMARTIN, Sociology Today: Lacunae, Emphases, and Surfeits,American Sociologist, 4 (1969) 283-291.12. Social Science Citation Index (1972-1981).13. P. Van ELTEREN, On the Combination of Independent Two Sample Test of Wilcoxon,Bulletin de l'Institut International de Statistique, 37 (1960) 351-361.14. B. A. LIPETZ, Improvement of the Selectivity of Citation Relationship Indicators, AmericanDocumentation, 16 (1965) 81-90.15. T. L. HODGES, Citation Indexing: Its Potential for Bibliographic Control, Berkeley, Univer-sity of California, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1972, p. 143.16. M. J. MORAVCSIK, P. MURUGESAN, 'Some Results on the Function and Ouality ofCitations, Social Studies of Science, 5 (1975) 86-92.17. I . SPIEGEL-ROSING, Science Studies: Bibliometric and Content Analysis, Social Studies ofScience, 7 (1977) 97-113.

218 Scientometrics 5 (1983)

are methodological papers more cited than theoretical or empirical ones

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