Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology vol 55, #2, Jan 2004 "Does Citation Reflect Social Structure? Longitudinal Evidence From the 'Globenet' Interdisciplinary Research Group' Howard D. White, Barry Wellman, and Nancy Nazer Published online 13 November 2003 pp. 111-126 White, Wellman, and Nazer investigate the inter-citation patterns of the 16 international interdisciplinary members of a research group established in 1993 to study human development with the hope of determining whether citation is based on whom those who cite know, or upon what they know, i.e., whether the patterns are social or intellectual in structure. The members of the group are acquainted and the study of the 240 possible pairs indicates that half collaborate and read each other's work, and 74% consider themselves friends or colleagues. Inter-citation patterns were studied prior to 1989, from 1989 to 1992, 1993 to 1996, and 1997 to 2000. Co-citation is shown to predict inter- citation; one cites those with whom one is co-cited. As members became better acquainted, citation of one another increased. Inter-citation was not randomly distributed with a core group of 12 pairs predominating. Friends cited friends more than acquaintances, and inter-citers communicated more than non-inter- citers. However, intellectual affinity, as shown by co-citation, rather than social ties, leads to inter-citation. _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________