Scientometrics is the science of measuring and analysing science. In practice, scientometrics is often done using bibliometrics which is a measurement of the impact of (scientific) publications. Modern scientometrics is mostly based on the work of Derek J. de Solla Price and Eugene Garfield. The latter founded the Institute for Scientific Information which is heavily used for scientometric analysis. Methods of research include qualitative, quantitative and computational approaches. One significant finding in the field is a principle of cost escalation to the effect that achieving further findings at a given level of importance grow exponentially more costly in the expenditure of effort and resources. However, new methods in search, machine learning and data mining are showing that is not the case for many information retrieval and extraction based problems. Related fields are the history of science and technology, philosophy of science and sociology of scientific knowledge.
Journals in the field include Scientometrics and Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. The International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics founded in 1993 is an association of professionals in the field.