Eugene Garfield, founder of the Institute for Scientific Information and creator of the Science Citation Index, transformed how researchers access and evaluate scientific knowledge. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, we honor his enduring legacy, which lives on through innovations like the Web of Science and its role in advancing research discovery and analytics.
In 1960, Eugene Garfield (1925-2017) founded the Institute for Scientific Information, a company that eventually became a key part of the Academia & Government segment at Clarivate. His accomplishments and legacy continue to shape and guide the philosophy, research agenda, and development of the Web of Science and related solutions today.
Garfield anticipated many concepts and inventions before advances in technology enabled their execution. For example, he introduced citation indexing of the scientific literature in 1964 with the Science Citation Index, which first appeared in print, then online, then CD-ROM, and finally as the Web of Science Core Collection. By organizing information through a network of citation connections, Garfield anticipated web hyperlinking by three decades: the Google founders cited his work in their 1998 paper on the PageRank algorithm.
Cutting-edge technology for information retrieval: Early advocate
Garfield’s initial goal was to improve the speed and accuracy of information retrieval to accelerate discovery and maximize the return on research investments for society. First, he pursued automated methods for indexing the literature, organizing one of the first conferences on this theme: the First Symposium on Machine Methods for Scientific Documentation at Johns Hopkins University, March 1953. When he discovered citation indexing as used in the legal professions (Shepard’s Citations), he adapted the technique to science, and the first commercially available citation index for the scientific literature, his Science Citation Index, appeared in 1964.
Garfield called his Science Citation Index an “association-of-ideas index.” He relied on the judgment of experts, members of the research community itself, whom he called his “army of indexers.” Their decisions about what to cite distilled their extensive knowledge and created a rich network representing the intellectual and social structure of science, one that could be navigated to find closely related content and key connections that might otherwise be missed.
“Garfield’s idea for the Science Citation Index is inspiring to me because he had an innovative vision and seemed to work tirelessly to turn it into a reality, nurturing it as it grew and became part of the fabric of science.”
Today, the Web of Science and other Clarivate products and services help millions of researchers find high quality, critical information they need to accelerate the pace of innovation. Following the pattern set by Garfield – a true first adopter of new tools and technologies – Clarivate continues to incorporate the latest technology to help researchers work efficiently with new tools such as the AI-powered Web of Science Research Assistant.
Responsible research analytics: Prudent uses of powerful data
Another focus for Garfield was supporting the management of research funding, personnel, and organization through quantitative analysis of publication activity and citation impact, while always calling for informed interpretation and cautioning against overly simplistic scoring and ranking. In 1998, he noted that “citation data and analysis should always be used in combination with other indicators when evaluating departments or individuals” and as early as 1963 stated: “It is preposterous to conclude blindly that the most cited author deserves a Nobel Prize….the mere ranking by number of citations or the number of published papers is no way to arrive at objective criteria of importance.”
“Eugene Garfield’s pioneering work laid the foundation of scientometrics. His concept of citation indexing not only opened new avenues for studying the structure and dynamics of knowledge, but also created new possibilities for research evaluation. My PhD advisor, Professor Bihui Jin, and I have greatly benefited from this foundation. Inspired by Garfield’s ideas, Professor Jin led the creation of the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), often referred to as the ‘Chinese SCI.’ Citation indexing is more than a tool—it is a unique perspective for understanding the nature of science and advancing scientific progress. For all who work in scientometrics, Garfield’s legacy is both enduring and profoundly inspiring.”
Clarivate today adopts the principle of “profiles, not metrics” and advocates the use of multiple measures coupled with knowledgeable, nuanced decision making. To this end, Clarivate offers a diversity of trusted data on various aspects of research, and the publication of research, in InCites Benchmarking & Analytics. Novel indicators and flexible visualizations also assist users to see and understand research activity in a multidimensional context.
Societal impact of research: Personal hopes and public advocacy
Garfield had much to say over the years about the importance of research investments for society. It may even be described as his life’s work. In fact, on May 21, 1959, in a letter to Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, who supported Garfield’s notion of creating a citation index for the scientific literature, Garfield wrote, “I have great faith that the citation index will one day be a spur to many new scientific discoveries in the service of mankind.” And at the end of his career he reflected, “You’d like to think that you spent your life trying to improve the condition of man.”
“Even today, I often revisit [Garfield’s] papers from the 1970s and 1980s, and they still provide valuable perspectives that help shape my research.”
Apart from his own contributions, Garfield lobbied for public investment in research. In 2002, to advance recognition for the returns on investment for society in fundamental research, he established the Eugene Garfield Economic Impact of Medical and Health Research Award, presented by Research!America, a political advocacy group he supported.
Clarivate today is formulating, in cooperation with the research community, a framework and variety of indicators of the societal impact of research, drawing from publication and citation data, patents, funding, and other sources. Societal impact profiles of institutions have been included in the August release of our AI-powered Web of Science Research Intelligence platform.
Research integrity: From unwitting duplication to citation manipulation
Garfield also sought to uphold traditional standards of scientific norms – by helping researchers avoid unwitting duplication, error, and exposing fraud, including citation manipulation, through providing comprehensive access to the research record – as described by his friend the sociologist of science Robert K. Merton in 1942.
“Just as authorship can be abused so can citation practices. Referees have a right, indeed an obligation, to verify the claims of authorship just as they ought to insist on the proper and adequate selection of works to be cited,” Garfield observed in 1978.
In our work today, Clarivate closely scrutinizes journals, proceedings, and books to ensure provision of the highest quality content and validity of indicators. We suspend or drop publications for anomalous and inappropriate publication and citation practices in the Web of Science Core Collection. We also account for the rising level of retractions in the literature and recently adjusted our methods for calculating the Journal Impact Factor. Our annual Highly Cited Researchers list is likewise subject to qualitative review; individual researchers are excluded if we observe evidence of non-normative practices or potential breaches of research integrity.
Whether for information retrieval, research evaluation, or demonstration of the beneficial outcomes of research beyond academia, the quality and reliability of Clarivate data, products, tools, and services remain its top priority, just as it was for Eugene Garfield for more than six decades, and thus the legacy he left us lives on.
Explore how trusted Clarivate solutions — including the Web of Science, InCites Benchmarking & Analytics, and Web of Science Research Intelligence — continue Eugene Garfield’s legacy by empowering researchers, institutions, and funders to accelerate discovery and demonstrate impact.
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