The 1960s, a golden age for academia in the USA, witnessed an unparallelled expansion of disciplines, among them the history of science and quantitative studies of science. A major pioneer in developing those fields was Derek Price, whose leadership of Yale University's newly created Department of History of Science and Medicine helped to bring national prominence to research about science and scientists. Price's legacy to the history of science, science policy, and scientometrics continues to be influential today. Three of Price's students recall the chemistry of the first years of the department, and reflect on their experiences with Price the scholar, teacher, and mentor.
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References
1.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘The equatorie of the planetis’;1955, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
2.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Gears from the Greeks: the antikythera mechanism – a calendar computer from ca. 80b.c.; 1975, New York, Science History Publications.
3.
SeeKraghH.: ‘An introduction to the historiography of science’, Section 17, ‘Scientometric historiography’; 1987, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
4.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Little science, big science’; 1963, New York, Columbia University Press; ‘Networks of scientific papers’, Science, 1965, 149, 510–515; with D. de B. Beaver: ‘Collaboration in an invisible college’, Am. Psychol, Nov. 1966, 21, (11), 1011–1018; ‘A general theory of bibliometric and other cumulative advantage processes’, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 1976, 17, 292–306; ‘The revolution in the mapping of science’, Proc. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 1979, 16, 245–253; with S. Gursey: ‘Studies in scientometrics. Part I: Transience and continuance in scientific authorship’, Proc. Int. Forum on ‘Information and documentation’, Moscow, USSR, 1976, Vol. 1:2, 17–24.
5.
SeeBeaverD. de B.: ‘Eloge: Derek John de Solla Price (22 January 1922–3 September 1983), Isis, 1985, 76, (283), 372.
6.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Quantitative measures of the development of science’, Arch. Int. Hist. Sci., 1951, 14, 85–93.
7.
For biographical information, seeGriffithB. C.: ‘Derek Price (1922–1983) and the social studies of science’, Scientometrics, 1984, 6, 5–7; A. Mackay: ‘Derek John de Solla Price: an appreciation’, Soc. Stud. Sci., 1984, 14, 315–320; E. Yagi: ‘Derek Price: personal reminiscences’, Hist. Scientiarum (Jpn), 1984, 26, 115–117; S. A. Bedini: ‘Price, Derek J. De Solla (1922–1983)’, Ann. Ist. Mus. Storia Sci., 1984, 9, (1), 95–115; D. De B. Beaver: ‘Eloge: Derek John de Solla Price (22 January 1922–3 September 1983)’, Isis, 1985, 76, (283), 371–374; B. Barber: review of reprinted ‘Little science, big science, and beyond’, Isis, 1987, 78, 589–591; A. R. Michaelis: ‘In memoriam – Derek de Solla Price’, Bull. Sci. Instrum. Soc., Jan. 1984.
8.
YagiE.: ‘Statistical approaches to the history of science 1960–68’, in ‘Science and society in modern Japan’, (ed. NakayamaS., et al.), 104–147; 1974, Tokyo, University of Tokyo Press/Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
9.
The partner was Robert H. Kargon, who has been professor of history of science at Johns Hopkins University for many years. He chose not to enter Yale's new department, but waited a year to see how Badash liked the subject – and then went to Cornell University to study under Henry Guerlac.
10.
This was Heinrich Medicus, who, in retirement, became very active in the American Physical Society's Division of History of Physics, where some three decades after Badash's graduation they again worked together.
11.
Another statistical approach Yagi found interesting was that ofRainoffT. J.: ‘Wave-like fluctuations of creative productivity in the development of West-European physics in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries’, Isis, 1929, 12, (38), 287–319.
12.
YagiE.: ‘Hantaro Nagaoka’, in‘Dictionary of scientific biography’, Vol. 9, 606–607; 1974, New York, Scribner's.
13.
Two other very helpful supporters wereThompsonElizabeth H. and StantonMadeline E.at the Medical-Historical Library.
14.
Bell was Associate Editor of the Franklin papers being published by Yale, and an expert in colonial American science. He later became Librarian of the American Philosophical Society and then its Executive Officer.
15.
Reingold was a visitor that year from the Library of Congress and, like Bell, was ‘dragooned’ into rounding out the faculty of the new department. He returned to Washington, DC, where he became Editor-in-Chief of the Joseph Henry papers, and later a senior scholar in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. Kilgour, Head of the Yale Medical School Library, was one of the pioneers in the early development of computerised library records and interconnections; deeply involved in what has come to be the Online Computer Library Center, he subsequently became Librarian at Ohio State University.
16.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Networks of scientific papers’, Science, 1965, 149, 510–515.
17.
YagiE.: ‘An application of a type of matrix to analyze citations of scientific papers’, Am. Document., Jan. 1965, 16, 10–19.
18.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Science since Babylon’; 1961, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press.
19.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Little science, big science’, 88; 1963, New York, Columbia University Press.
20.
BadashL.(ed.): ‘Rutherford and Boltwood: letters on radioactivity’; 1969, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press.
21.
BadashL.: ‘Radioactivity in America: growth and decay of a science’; 1979, Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press.
22.
Price followed a similar policy with Beaver, asking him at an early stage of research to stop, take a week's time out, and write a 50 or 60 page draft of his thesis. Then, Price said, put it in a drawer and forget about it until later. The exercise had the same effect as on Badash, of remarkably clarifying and delineating the research lines to follow. If not taken to an extreme, the policy of writing first, and doing research second, can occasionally be exceptionally helpful.
23.
BadashL.: ‘Radioactivity in America: growth and decay of a science’, 263–265; 1979, Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press.
24.
PriceD. J. de S.: ‘Little science, big science’, 98–101; 1963, New York, Columbia University Press.
25.
BeaverD. de B.: ‘A statistical study of scientific and technical journals’, unpublished report on work on NSF GN 299 (Price), Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, 1964.
26.
PriceD. J. de S.and D. De B. Beaver: ‘Collaboration in an invisible college’, Am. Psychol., Nov. 1966, 21, (11), 1011–1018; reprinted, but without Beaver's name, in ‘Little science, big science and beyond’, 103–118; 1986, New York, Columbia University Press.
27.
BeaverD. de B.: ‘The American scientific community, 1800–1860: a statistical-historical study’, PhD thesis, Yale University, Cambridge, MA, USA, 1966; reprinted 1980, New York, Arno Press.
28.
ElliottC. A.: ‘The American scientist, 1800–1863; his origins, career, and interests’, PhD thesis, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA, 1970 (photocopy: 1974, Ann Arbor, MI, University Microfilms); G. H. Daniels: ‘American science in the age of Jackson’, 1968, New York, Columbia University Press(based on the author's thesis, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA).
29.
A brief description of those days can be found inMertonR. K.: ‘An episodic memoir’, in‘The sociology of science in Europe’, (ed. MertonR. K. and GastonJ.), 42–43; 1977, Carbondale, IL, Southern Illinois University Press.
30.
PriceD. J. de S.: Soc. Stud. Sci., 1975, 5, 212.
31.
Compiled byYagiE.. SeeYagiE.: Hist. Scientiarum. (Jpn), 1984, 26, 115–117; A. Mackay: Soc. Stud. Sci., 1984, 14, 315–320; D. de B. Beaver: ISIS, 1985, 76, 371–374.
