Limited western circulation of Soviet scientometrics: the case of Naukometriya

Abstract

Co-authored by Vasily Nalimov and Zinaida Mulchenko, Naukometriya (1969) introduced the term that came to name the field of scientometrics. However, the book itself had limited impact on the development of the field outside the Eastern Bloc. This paper examines how problems of translation shaped the global circulation of one of scientometrics’ foundational texts. We reconstruct the history of the book’s only English version, a 1971 machine translation produced with the Systran system for the U.S. Air Force, and assess its quality using the Multidimensional Quality Metrics framework. Our analysis demonstrates that the translation introduced substantial linguistic and conceptual distortions, obscuring key ideas and plausibly contributing to the book’s limited reception in the West, alongside structural factors such as restricted dissemination and geopolitical constraints. To explain why a revised translation was never published, we analyze archival correspondence between Nalimov and Eugene Garfield. We also draw on Web of Science citation data covering both the original Naukometriya and its English translation to reconstruct patterns of international visibility. The paper demonstrates how triangulation of bibliometric analysis, translation quality assessment, and archival sources can reconstruct the infrastructural conditions under which foundational scientometric texts circulate — or fail to circulate — across linguistic and political boundaries.