Science
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Evaluation by means of citation patterns can be successful only insofar as published papers and their bibliographies reflect scientific activity and nothing else. Such an innocent descrip tion is becoming less and less tenable. The present scientific explosion gave rise to more than a proportional pub lication explosion, which not only re flects the scientific explosion but has its own dynamics and vicious circles. ⋯ Any judg ment by public acclaim is subject to obvious fallacies, but we must not be carried away by the analogy to the Stock Exchange or to electoral prac tices. The fact that, in this case, the "public" consists of authors whose con tributions are generally linked creates quite a new pattern of organization. In this discussion some of the aspects of this pattern have been explored through analogy to idealized genetic or mechani cal network models, but the very uniqueness of the system, with its many self-organizing ramifications, makes it a new field which deserves close study, since these developments may have pro found effects on the future of scientific communication.