R-Sequences: Relative Indicators for the Rhythm of Science

Like most activities in the world, scientific evolution has its own rhythm. How can this evolutionary rhythm be described and made visible? Do different fields have different rhythms, and how can they be measured? In order to answer these questions a relative indicator, called R-sequence, was designed. This indicator is time dependent, derived from publication and citation data, but independent of the absolute number of publications, as well as the absolute number of citations, and can therefore be used in a comparison of different scientific fields, nations, institutes, or journals. Two calculation methods of the R-sequence—the triangle method and the parallelogram method—are introduced. As a case study JASIS(T)’s R-sequence has been obtained.