In an attempt to determine the interrelationships of articles published regarding drug information services activity, a citation analysis was performed. The period chosen for study was 1961–1979. During this period, some 258 publications were identified as meeting the operational definition of drug information services activity. A subset of publications was selected for further study and showed that (1) less than 1/3 of the articles in the subset cited one another, (2) the “classic” article (s) are seldom cited, and (3) authors tend to cite themselves more frequently than others. A historiograph is presented which shows all of the citation interrelationships of the subset of publications.
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KoshyGP. The citeability of a scientific paper. Proceedings of Northeast Regional Conference of American Institute for Decision Sciences. Philadelphia (April-May), 1976: 224–7.
4.
GarfieldE. Is the ratio between number of citations and publications cited a true constant? In: Essays of an information scientist, vol 2. Philadelphia: ISI Press, 1977: 419–21.
5.
GarfieldE. Citation indexing: The theory and application in science, technology and humanities. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1979.
