Citation Analysis of a Scientific Career: A Case Study

A comprehensive collection of papers citing the works of a leading theoretical molecular spectroscopist has been analyzed. Citations were collected in the period 1937-75, and classified by the following criteria: (a) cited in a 'cover-all' review; (b) cited among others; (c) cited extensively or as argumentation; (d) cited with some reservation; (e) cited with criticism; and (f) extensively used for further development Results indicate a constant citation frequency within the entire period studied. It seems that the effect of the increase of publication output in this field is just about compensated for by the decay of the citation frequency. Citations of type a are uniformly spread over all papers, with an average of one citation every ten years. The ratio of types a + b to types c + d + e + f is not inconsistent with a value of about 1:2 - that is, citations to this author reflect considerable real impact.