Computer-Aided Historiography-How 1S1 Uses Cluster Trackfng to Monitor the “Vital Sigrss” of Science

On numerous occasions, f’ve said that ISP’s various data bases will become increasingly more interesting to the historian of science. 1.2 However, there is a serious problem in using the expression “history of science.” The term too often connotes scholarship confined to the ancient origins of science. Consequently, the subject matter of most history of science is thought to be so distant that it doesn’t require the attention of the contemporary scientist. But the progress of science has accelerated sharply in recent decades. Significant dkcoveries required decades or centuries for past generations of scientists to accomplish. Today, breakthroughs occur in months or years. ThE is manifested in an explosive output of literature. The number of papers published each year is orders of magnitude greater than in the past and, contrary to popular myth, the information content of the average scientific paper today is equal to or greater than the average paper published 50 years ago. We remember primarily the great papers of the past. We forget that many less dramatic papers were also published then. For these and many other reasons, history should be a vital concern of every contemporary scientist and certainly of every research manager or administrator. While the original purpose of N’s data bases was to simpliy information retrieval, they have now become a working tool for the historian and sociologist of science. April 5,1982