Of models and scientific markets

The primary goal of science is the discovery of knowledge and scientific innovation. Such newly acquired information must be disseminated to many different groups of researchers who have many different interests and specific needs. Identifying existing markets for present information poses formidable problems for information scientists; anticipating future scientific breakthroughs and the potential impact thereof is an even greater challenge. On the one side of the scientific market exchange system, practitioners, researchers, and scholars seek information quickly and accurately and at a reasonable price. On the other side, a science of information systems has developed using new media, retrieval, and dissemination techniques with different cost/utility structures. This paper discusses a relatively inexpensive technique, citation indexing, which has the advantage of being adaptable to any scientific discipline wherein the scientific journal is a primary means of communication. Although citation indexes are incomplete at any given point in time, they are “complete on the important issues” and can be adapted to many different research and institutional management purposes.