Derek John de Solla Price (January 22, 1922 – September 03, 1983) was a science historian and information scientist, credited as the father of scientometrics. Price was born in Leyton, England. He studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of London. He obtained two Ph.D. degrees: one in experimental physics from the University of London in 1946, and one in the history of science, from Cambridge University. Price worked at Raffles College what is now the University of Singapore (1948). After obtaining his second doctorate, he moved to the States where he worked at Princeton and the Smithsonian Institution. At his next post, Yale, where he worked until his death, he was appointed as the Avalon professor of history of science, and served as chair of a new department that encompassed the histories of science, technology, and medicine. In 1984 Price received, posthumously, the ASIS Research Award for outstanding contributions in the field of information science. Modern science is a body of verifiable empirical knowledge, a global community of scholars, and a set of techniques for investigating the universe known as the scientific method. ... Information Science or Informatics is the science of information. ... Bibliometrics is the study, or measurement, of texts and information. ... Leyton is a place in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, situated on the Prime Meridian and north of the River Thames. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion... Physics (from the Greek, φυσικός (phusikos), natural, and φύσις (phusis), nature) is the science of nature in the broadest sense. ... Mathematics, often abbreviated maths in Commonwealth English and math in American English, is the study of abstraction. ... Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the universitys central administration offices and its library The University of London, founded in 1836, is a federation of colleges which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Experimental physics is the part of physics that deals with experiments and observations, unlike theoretical physics. ... Modern science is a body of verifiable empirical knowledge, a global community of scholars, and a set of techniques for investigating the universe known as the scientific method. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world (after Oxford). ... Raffles College is a Singapore high school run broadly along the lines of a British public school. ... The word Usa has more than one meaning: U.S.A. - The United States of America The United States Army Usa, Oita - A city in Japan The USA cable network USA Today national daily newspaper The University of Southern Alabama goes by the initials U.S.A. The patriotic cheer... Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. ... The Smithsonian castle, as seen through the garden gate. ... This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. ...

His scientific contributions include

• the establishment of scientometrics through his study of the exponential growth of science and the half-life of scientific literature (Price 1963),
• the examination of interactive communication patterns of scientists (Price 1965), and
• his interpretation of Herbert Simon's theory on cumulative advantage processes (Price 1976).

Price is also known for his study of the Antikythera mechanism. Bibliometrics is the study, or measurement, of texts and information. ... Herbert Simon (June 15, 1916–February 9, 2001) was a researcher in the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, economics and philosophy (sometimes described as a polymath). ... The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient artifact believed to be an early clockwork mechanism. ...

Seminal Publications

• Derek J. de Solla Price (1961). Science since Babylon. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Derek J. de Solla Price (1963). Little Science, Big Science. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Derek J. de Solla Price (1965). Networks of Scientific Papers (http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/pricenetworks1965.pdf). Science, 149(3683):510-515, (July 30).
• Derek J. de Solla Price (1976). A general theory of bibliometric and other cumulative advantage processes. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 27:292-306. (1976 JASIS paper award).

References

• American Society of Information Science and Technology (http://www.asis.org/) Derek DeSolla Price (http://www.asis.org/Features/Pioneers/price.htm).
• Derek de Solla Price (1983). This Week's Citation Classic: Little Science, Big Science (http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1983/A1983QX23200001.pdf). ISI. Current Contents 29:18 (July).