Dr. Jian Wang, who obtained his PhD in 2013 from the School of Public Policy, Ivan Allen College, Georgia Institute of Technology, is the inaugural winner of the Eugene Garfield Award for Innovation in Citation Analysis. The award amount is $25,000, and the winner also receives access to Web of Science data. 

 Dr. Jian Wang, Assistant Professor at the Science Based Business Program, Faculty of Science, Leiden University in the Netherlands, was selected for the award among many creative, high-quality applications from 18 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and South and Central America. 

The Garfield Award was created to recognize early-career scientists working on innovative approaches in citation analysis, one of the key interests of Dr. Garfield and an important component of his impact on information retrieval, research assessment and the study of the science of science. 

Dr. Wang's research applies scientometric and econometric methods to characterize novel research using citation data and to use references to scientific literature from within patents to explore the translation of science into innovation. His work lies at the intersection of information science, economics and important discussion of how bibliometric indicators can be enhanced to better identify and assess novel research and translation science. 

"Among the many excellent submissions, Jian's application stood out because it was grounded equally in the methodology of citation analysis and the application of these approaches to further scientific policy and governance," said David Pendlebury, who worked with Eugene Garfield for many years and served on the application review panel. "Gene was interested in applying citation analysis methods to real-world scientific problems, and this award is meant to recognize that."

Reacting to the news, Wang said, "I will make good use of the award funding and access to Web of Science data to build a data infrastructure and research team to pursue my research, such as topic modeling for identifying novel research and mapping patent in-text references to the scientific literature. This recognition comes at an important time in my career as I'm establishing my independent research program."

The Garfield Award was announced during a national symposium for Dr. Garfield, where hundreds of his professional colleagues, friends and family gathered to celebrate his contributions and personal commitment to early career scientists from around the world. The two-day event includes a series of scientific presentations on past, current and possible future uses of citation data in information retrieval and research assessment, as well as personal reflections of Dr. Garfield as a scholar, innovator, entrpreneur, colleague, friend and family man. 

"With Dr. Wang as the first award recipient, combined with the broader symposium and program, we're able to properly honor and show our appreciation for Dr. Garfield, who was a visionary leader, colleague and friend to so many," said Jessica Turner, global head of Scientific and Academic Research business at Clarivate Analytics.