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Dissertation Information for Virginia Patricia Cano-Reynoso

NAME:
- Virginia Patricia Cano-Reynoso

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Western Ontario (Canada) (1990)

ADVISORS:
- Jean Mary Tague-Sutcliffe

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Michael J. Nelson
- Gillian Michell

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Citation life cycle: Use of citations through tim

Abstract: Citations form a part of any scientific paper. Their role as countable elements in the fields of sociology of science and library and information science has increased in importance since the availability of SCIENCE CITATION INDEX tapes; the availability of a large database of citation data on machine readable format has allowed research on citations, their use and their impact to proliferate.

In spite of the widespread use of citations, there is little theory on the citation behaviour of scientists. The goal of this research was to study citations in the context of the writing processes of scientists by relating citations to a theoretical structure of scientific discourse.

Five citation classics, defined as any highly cited paper selected and defined as "classic" by the Institute for Scientific Information and four non-classics were identified and their citation life studied over a period of twenty years. The locations in which the cited classic and non-classic occurred in the citing text were traced over time and related to a structure of scientific discourse. The age and type of the cited article were related to two variables of citing behaviour: citation location and citation type. It was expected that citations to the cited papers would travel through different sections of the structure of scientific discourse as the cited papers aged.

The distributions of the citation location variable and the citation type variable for citation classics differed from the distributions for non-classics within the same variables. However, the variables of citation location and citation type did not change as a function of age. Most citations were of a methodological nature and remained static in the methodological sections of the citing text irrespective of the age of the cited paper.

The growth pattern for citation classics differed from that of the non-classics. Non-classics seem to experience an early growth reaching their peak three years after publication. The pattern of growth of citation classics was slower, with some classics reaching their peak during the seventh and eighth year after publication; others were still growing with their peak to be determined by future research.

MPACT Scores for Virginia Patricia Cano-Reynoso

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:26:45

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