  The paper provides an overview of the field of scientometrics, that is: the
study of science, technology, and innovation from a quantitative perspective.
We cover major historical milestones in the development of this specialism from
the 1960s to today and discuss its relationship with the sociology of
scientific knowledge, the library and information sciences, and science policy
issues such as indicator development. The disciplinary organization of
scientometrics is analyzed both conceptually and empirically, using a map of
journals cited in the core journal of the field, entitled Scientometrics. A
state-of-the-art review of five major research threads is provided: (1) the
measurement of impact; (2) the delineation of reference sets; (3) theories of
citation; (4) mapping science; and (5) the policy and management contexts of
indicator developments.
