From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Tue Sep 10 2002 - 23:02:49 MDT
[rhinoceros -1]
>From MIT Tech Talk Wednesday April 15, 1992 page 3
Chomsky is Citation Champ
Many are the authors who may wonder is anyone is paying attention to what they write. Professor Noam Chomsky, MIT's preeminent linguistics authority, doesn't have that problem. Recent research on citations in three different citation indices show that Professor Chomsky is one of the most cited individuals in works published in the past 20 years.
In fact, his 3,874 citations in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index between 1980 and 1992 make him the most cited living person in that period and the eight most cited source overall -- just behind famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and just ahead of philosopher Georg Hegel.
Indeed, Professor Chomsky is in illustrious company. The top ten cited sources during the period were:
1. Marx
2. Lenin
3. Shakespeare
4. Aristotle
5. The Bible
6. Plato
7. Freud
8. Chomsky
9. Hegel
10. Cicero.
But that isn't all. From 1972 to 1992, Professor Chomsky was cited 7,449 times in the Social Science Citation Index -- likely the greatest number of times for a living person there as well, although the research into those numbers isn't complete. In addition, from 1974 to 1992 he was cited 1,619 times in the Science Citation Index.
"What it means is that he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines," said Theresa A. Tobin, the Humanities Librarian who checked the numbers. "In fact," she added, "it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky."
[Joe Dees 1]
1) Ad Populam is a 2500-year-old Greek logical fallacy, so his plethora
of citations contribute not one whit to his credibility on this issue.
2) Many of his citations have to do with both his more legitimate
(although hotly disputed and currently out of favor) academic work and
his other anti-american prounciamentoes.
3) It would be interesting to analyze his post-9/11 citations to discover
what percentage of them were disparaging or refutational; my guess is
that the percentage would be high.
[rhinoceros 2]
Of course, the number of citations does not prove someone right. This becomes obvious by taking a look at the other names mentioned. It just proves that what Chomsky had to say was considered very important for Arts and Humanities papers accross disciplines.
Quote:
"What it means is that he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines," said Theresa A. Tobin, the Humanities Librarian who checked the numbers. "In fact," she added, "it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky."
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