Scientometrics, VoL 21. No. 1 (1991) 49-68 THE UTILITY OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS J.-L. SIKORAV+ Harvard Medical School, Department of Genetics, 25 Shattuck Stree~ Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (USA) (Received May 3, 1990 in revised form July 17, 1990) This article investigates the function of scientific papers in the production of scientific knowledge. For this production, the citations made of these papers in the scientific literature can be considered as economic utilities. The work of the scientist is described as the production of citations by means of citations. The number of citations received by a given paper can be used to measure the paper's formal utility. The formal utility of scientific papers is studied empirically. It is concluded that the references contained in a scientific paper are a major determinant of its future utility. Introduction What are the conditions for the successful production of scientific knowledge? These conditions include the funding of a research programme, and the availability of an appropriate task force. Assuming that these basic requirements have been full'died, we shall focus here on other conditions more directly related to scientific knowledge. This knowledge will be defined as the knowledge present in scientific journals, which are the major formal channels of communication between scientists. Scientific knowledge can be acquired through formal and informal channels of communication within the scientific community. 1 Within scientific papers - which we shall def'me as the elementary units of scientific knowledge - the acquisition of previous scientific knowledge is mentioned in a manner reflecting the mode of communication. Acknowledgements for private communications, helpful discussions or unpublished results are related to informal channels. Previous scientific knowledge is also mentioned in the references usually present in scientific papers (these references may have been acquired by either the formal or the informal modes of communication). The goal of this paper is to study the role of these references in the production of scientific papers. The literary description of scientific activities has its limitation: the scientific knowledge which is not included in the references of a given +Present address: Institut Pasteur 25 rue du Dr Roux 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. Scientometrics 21 (1991) Elsevier, Amsterdam - Oxford - New York- Tokyo Akaddmiai Kiad6