I The Impact of Citation ComMs — A UK Perspective

Recently, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) held its annual meeting. On September 6, a special half-day conference considered the use of citations as performance indicators. Viewpoints both for and against were expressed. This Mason Conference was brought about, in part, by tlte decision earlier this year by the University Grants Committee, one of two major government funding bodies for UK academic research, to use citation data, inter alia, to help assess research performance. The following reprint was originally published July 15, 1988, in the limes Higher Ekiucation Supplement (THES) (London). I was invited to write this piece as a result of the heightened interest in the topic in the UK. Indeed, an earlier BAAS meeting had considered the topic, as dld a Ciba Foundation conference on evahtation research. Nthough tlis article was written for a British audience, I believe the issues addressed have a general significance.