Draft:Melvin Weinstock
Information Scientist
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Melvin Weinstock was an information scientist and professor with a focus on bibliometrics. He worked for the Institute for Scientific Information as the Director of Marketing and later as the Director of New Product Planning starting in 1969. During this time he also worked as an adjunct professor at City University of New York and Drexel University.[1] Weinstock was appointed as the head of the School of Librarianship at the University of New South Wales in 1976, and later as the Warden of Philip Baxter College in 1979. He died on October 28, 1984.[1] His research focused on citation indexes and on the marketing of information products.[2]
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Early Life and Education
Weinstock spent his early life in a farming community in Michigan.[1] His time spent in the farming community developed his his pride in his American Jewish heritage, and his love of botany.[2] Weinstock received a bachelors of science in agricultural research from Rutgers University, and later a Masters of Science in Information Science at Drexel University in 1973.[1][3]
Career
Weinstock began his career in information science in 1964 by working for Herner and Company in Washington, D.C.[1] where he worked on medical and scientific information system design,[1] as well as on reports such as "Selected mechanized scientific and technical information systems"[4] and "Characteristics of information systems as revealed by an analysis of data in the National Science Foundation's series."[5] In 1969, he worked at the Institute for Scientific Information as the the Director of Marketing, and later as the Director of New Product Planning.[1] During this time, Weinstock developed plans for the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), which recorded citations within social science and humanities journals in a citation index.[6] This citation index was based on the idea that articles referencing the same publication have subject relationships to the cited articles and each other. According to Weinstock, the SSCI was created in response to requests from social scientists for a citation index similar to the Science Citation Index.[6] The Social Sciences and Humanities Citation Index was nominated for the Information Industry Association's Information Product of the Year award in 1975, where Weinstock presented a speech for product.[7]
During his time at the Institute for Scientific Information, Weinstock worked as an adjunct professor at City University of New York and Drexel University.[2] In 1976, he left the Institute to work as a professor and head of the School of Librarianship at the University of New South Wales. He was later appointed the Warden of Philip Baxter College within the university.[1] During this time, he also served as a member in several organizations within the university: the Executive Board of Shalom College, the advisory committee of the Australian Ensemble, the Library Committee, and the Research and Higher Awards Committee.[1] Weinstock also carried out a. study on Inter-Library Loan within University libraries with the goal of improving the efficiency of libraries and reducing costs through research sharing. The study started in 1979, but the report was not released until 1986, 2 years after Weinstock's death.[8]
Legacy
Weinstock 's primary research area was in citation indexing and the marketing of information products.[2] His most notable publication was "Citation Indexes," which discussed the reasons authors cite previous research.[9] In it, he borrows Eugene Garfield's 15 reasons for citation, and articulates the basic assumption of the normative theory of citing. The normative theory states that authors cite articles or researchers whose ideas or research inspired or were used by the author. This assumption has been challenged by skeptics of the normative theory, who charge that other motives, such as flattery, dictate who an author cites.[10]
Publications
- Weinstock, Melvin and Saul Herner. 1967. "Characteristics of Information Systems as Revealed by an Analysis of Data in the National Science Foundation’s Series." Nonconventional Scientific and Technical Information Systems in Current Use, 4: 1-79. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015027423568.
- Weinstock, Melvin. 1967. “Network Concepts in Scientific and Technical Libraries.” Special Libraries (New York) 58 (5): 328.
- Weinstock, Melvin. 1971. “Bradford’s Law.” Nature (London) 233 (5319): 434–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/233434a0.
- Weinstock, Melvin. 1971. "Citation Indexes." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (New York) 5: 16-40.