It’s been over 50 years since Dr. Eugene Garfield and his collaborators developed the Science Citation Index, and in doing so, revolutionized information retrieval in the sciences and helped launch the field of scientometrics. During subsequent decades, the research community was an indispensable partner to Dr. Garfield and members of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) as they sought new uses for the citation data presented in what became the Web of Science. As head of the newly re-established ISI, I want to re-emphasize that Clarivate Analytics’ productive relationship with the academic community is a priority, as it was for Gene. In that capacity, I’m pleased to open this year’s call for applications to the Eugene Garfield Award for Innovation in Citation Analysis.
When this award was established in 2017, Clarivate Analytics sought not only to honor Garfield’s foundational contributions to the scientometrics community, but also to emulate his generous support for early career scientists. Dr. Jian Wang, Assistant Professor in the Science Based Business program at Leiden University, was selected from among many great submissions from researchers all over the world. With an interest in using large databases and advanced statistics to reveal the structures and dynamics underlying science and technology, Wang was a natural choice to extend and update the work Garfield and his collaborators conducted in mapping and analyzing science.
“This year, we strive to build on the success of the previous award by opening eligibility to researchers at all career stages.”
This year, we strive to build on the success of the previous award by opening eligibility to researchers at all career stages. In this year’s call, we seek novel approaches in citation analysis that can be applied to challenges in information retrieval, science, technology and innovation indicators or in studying the science of science. It’s important to note that we are not interested in supporting incremental improvements of the many excellent, existing methodologies that scientometricians have developed. Of course, we value this natural extension of scientometrics research, but we feel strongly that there are sufficient venues for funding and recognition of that important work. Instead we aim to identify and recognize truly innovative research exploiting citation data that has the potential to bring about significant advances in our field. That does imply, of course, that we are rather interested in those more ‘exciting’ ideas you never managed to get funded elsewhere!
“…we aim to identify and recognize truly innovative research exploiting citation data that has the potential to bring about significant advances in our field.”
Besides a CV (and one letter of recommendation from a senior member of the department for those not holding a tenured or tenure track position), we have chosen to keep the application materials brief, with a maximum of two pages for the research description and a maximum of two pages for potential outcomes of the research. Members of ISI and a group of representatives from within the company will review the applications and identify those that represent a genuine novel approach to leveraging citation data and analysis for an important problem.
We expect to select one winner who will receive a one-time award of $25,000 USD, as well as research access to the Web of Science for one year to carry out the proposed research project.
The winner will be announced during a special event at the 2018 STI conference hosted by Leiden University.
So, if you have an idea for groundbreaking uses of citation data, please submit an application by July 31st. Application instructions, the application form, and the award terms and conditions can be found here.
The call for applications is open now through July 22nd, so don’t delay. And, of course, please share this announcement with your collaborators and colleagues around the world.
