Foreword

Scientometrics, ever since it came into existence as a field of study, has given new dimensions to the two main scientific principles – Objectivity and Reproducibility. With modern techniques at hand, it has now become possible for us to measure the impact of scientific outputs and the outcomes. Perhaps, librarians and information scientists, have been the first ones to recognise the importance of big data when they started analysing the impact of science, understanding citations and production indicators, and the implications and the ultimate purpose of science. Thanks to Eugene Garfield, Derek J de Solla Price and the thousands of information scientists such as the ones that have authored papers in this publication, Scientometric results have had an influence on the way scientific literature and other outputs have been further harnessed by mankind in recent years, due to which materials such as science citation index, current contents and other citation databases became treasured possessions in libraries. Today, we witness a range of big companies developing algorithms for analysing and influencing ‘consumer behaviour’ and ‘knowledge seeking behaviour’ in the modern age of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Augmented Reality research. The multi-armed bandit problem models tested to optimise the use of existing knowledge, called ‘exploitation’ and the attempt to acquire new knowledge, called ‘exploration’ are the new steps that extend the idea of measuring science and its outcomes. We are in the age of big data analytics. Recommender systems that are likely to replace the functions of a search engine have started to predict, manipulate and influence user preferences towards any kind of information, thus, going a step above the objectivity of measuring a scientific output to filtering and influencing users’ information and knowledge seeking behaviour. Many a times, in this process, the objectivity is lost; it is the idea of ‘influence’ and market-driven competitiveness that dominates these new developments in the ‘post-truth’ world. This is the reason why the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is seeking transparency in algorithms so the ideas of ‘objectivity’ and ‘openness’ with which he gave the web freely to the world are maintained. While the world of computing is advancing its field with the above techniques, it becomes imperative for the library and information science community to also defend science by advancing their own proven techniques such as scientometric, bibliometric and citation analyses, and the enterprise of measuring productivity in precision. The thrust librarians and information scientists place on principles such as normalisation, fairness and pro-quality metrics that are averse to manipulation and improper validation should combat the ‘unfair’ systems that have come to influence the way knowledge is sought, accessed and promoted. In this context, one must pay tribute to the man the world has lost this year, Sir Eugene Garfiled, by advancing the field of scientometics that he has left behind. I commend my friend and colleague, Dr J John Jeyasekar, Dr P Saravanan, and the scores of authors who have done their bit to advance the field that upholds the scientific principles of ‘objectivity’ and ‘reproducibility’ through their articles in this publication.