Talk:Obliteration phenomenon

Bad example?
Actually, Einstein (co)-authored quite a few papers dealing with various aspects of the special or general theories of relativity. If the example refers to the 1905 paper on electrodynamics (which founded special relativity), then it is not directly relevant to cosmology, so it would usually by pretentious and a waste of spacetime to cite it. If the example refers to the 1916 paper laying out the foundations of the general theory of relativity, again, this is not directly related to cosmology. If a cosmologist needs to refer to a standard concept or technique from gtr, it makes more sense to cite a recent textbook, since the theory has developed greatly since Einstein's time.

I suppose this doesn't obviate the point that this makes life hard for influence tracking or whatever the information scientists are interested in, but it shouldn't be hard to compile keywords of terms used in gtr (say) and then to count articles using these frequently as having been heavily influenced (probably only indirectly) by Einstein.---CH (talk) 05:21, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Who coined the term?
Garfield says in his article, "[t]his process of scientific obliteration was first described by Robert Merton in his beautifully conceived book, On the Shoulders of Giants." However, he himself seems to have coined the term: "The 'obliteration' or 'palimpset' phenomenon affects citations to discoveries that are so quickly absorbed into the fabric of science and technology that they become (to use sociological jargon) too quickly institutionalized."

The true originator of the phrase should be identified by checking Merton's book to see what he says.

WilliamDenton 03:35, 14 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I checked Merton's book by using Amazon's Look Inside the Book feature. It turns out that Merton was describing a different phenomenon under the names palimpset syndrome or anatopic syndrome. Merton was not refering to the complete obliteration of citation, as Garfield is. Merton was referring to the temporary obliteration and the subsequent mis-citation to the most recent author to mention a concept or use an aphorism. I don't have time now to fix up the entry, but perhaps someone else will. --Nick 04:53, 4 August 2006 (UTC)