Origins of bibliometrics, citation indexing, and citation analysis: The neglected legal literature

✍ Scribed by Shapiro, Fred R.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-8231
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(199206)43:5<337::aid-asi2>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

Historians of bibliometrics have neglected legal bibliometrics almost completely. Yet bibliometrics, citation indexing, and citation analysis all appear to have been practiced in the legal field long before they were introduced into scientific literature. Publication counts are found in legal writings as early as 1817. Citation indexing originated with "tables of cases cited," which date at least as far back as 1743. A full-fledged citation index book was published in 1860. Two ambitious citation analyses of court decisions appeared in 1894 and 1895.