Further steps in integrating the platforms of WoS and Scopus: Historiography with HistCite™ and main-path analysis

The program HistCite™ enables an analyst to identify significant works on a given topic using the citation links between them diachronically. However, using Scopus data for drawing historiograms with HistCite™ has hitherto been a problem. In the new version of the program CRExplorer, one can translate citation data from Scopus to WoS formats (or vice versa) and then import the data into HistCite™. In this brief communication, we demonstrate these options using the papers of Eugene Garfield (1925-2017) in Scopus for main-path analysis. The two historiograms are considerably different: unlike the WoS set, the networked connections between the time lines are sparse in the representation of the Scopus data; the secondary documents (e.g., editorials in Current Contents) not processed in Scopus, but included in WoS enrich the representation. Furthermore, HistCite™ has an option to export the citation network as a Pajek file that can be read by most network analysis and visualization programs. Garfield’s texts are centered by him as a personality and entrepreneur in different domains more than intellectually, although there are a number of recurring themes. Our own main paths are shaped along a line along which components indicate longer-term projects.