SCIENCE ON SCIENCE IN LITHUANIA: INTRODUCING A MONOGRAPH „SCIENTOMETRICS“ BY ONA VOVERIENĖ

The topic of citation, input by country and other scientometrical indicators are widely discussed by Lithuanian scholars, though academic librarians still recall the questions about impact factors and “which are THE journals” to send the articles to, and so to obtain the required scores for the scientific certification. The scientometrical ideas become more popular in Lithuania when “Social functions of science” (1939) by John Desmond Bernal (1901–1970) in 1965 and one year later – a “Little science. Big science” (1963) by Derek John de Solla Price (1922–1983) were translated to Russian language (they were almost unavailable in the original language for scholars in Soviet Union). These world famous monographs were followed by other monographs in scientometrics by soviet scholars, subject of scientometrics discussed at conferences and journal articles. “Scientometrics” was the first article (1969) published in a popular journal Mokslas ir technika by Stasys Poškus. The role of Lithuanian institute of Information science and the board of “Kibernetics” at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences were outstanding in this field during early 60'ies. Lithuanian scholars were investigating citation impact on science development and information service, information theory, connection between scientometrics and history of science, etc. The scientific school of scientometricians in Lithuania was raised by Ona Voverienė, a famous professor of Vilnius University. O. Voverienė worked as an information officer at the company of chemical industry, investigated information theory, extended the investiga-tion of scientific communities in Lithuania. The science on science policy, main achieve-ments and personal structure of Lithuanian scholarship were presented in a trilogy: “Bibli-omertrija” (Bibliometrics, 1999), “Mokslinės mokyklos Lietuvoje” (Scientific schools in Lithuanian, with co-authors, 2002) and “Žymieji 20-jojo amžiaus Lietuvos mokslininkai” (Famous Lithuanian scholars in 20th century, 2009). O. Voverienė encouraged a “Bibliometrical seminar” for problems of information theory and bibliometrical investigations (1999–2001 at the Wrobelwski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences), though professor's idea to establish a centre for Scientometrics is still unaccomplished. The history of scientometrics (the former term „science on science“ is considered as outdated in the scholarly writings in English language, though in some other languages it is still well accepted) from both historical and regional perspective is presented in the latest monograph „Mokslotyra“* (2013) by professor Ona Voverienė. The contents cover development of scientometrics in East Europe and Lithuania, theory and methodology are documented using the literature analysis. The biograms of outstanding scientometicians are presented together with Lithuanian specialist.