Abstract: Derek Price epitomized the quantitative study of History of Science,and the quantitative study of History of Science is also the main line of Price's academic research. The law of exponential growth of science as a starting point of his quantitative study of History of Science,which can be traced back to the curiosity and thinking about science in his boyhood,the accumulation of physics and mathematics in the early years of academic career and the direct inspiration from Pragg and Parkinson. Based on the basic understanding and hypothesis of “Science is the papyrocentric accumulative activity”,Price inherited and developed the quantitative study method in History of Science and formed“Price’s three laws”. At the same time,Price used the Science Citation Index to explore the network of scientific papers of the whole world,depicting the whole picture of the development of science from the foundation to the frontier,opening the mainstream direction of citation analysis based on scientific papers. Price is both a propagandist and a fruitful practitioner of quantitative study of History of Science.

摘要： 普赖斯是科学史定量研究的集大成者，而科学史定量研究亦是普赖斯学术研究的逻辑主线。科学增长指数规律是普赖斯科学史定量研究的起点，其思想源头可以追溯到少年时代对科学的好奇与思考、学术生涯早期在物理学与数学方面的积淀，以及从布拉格和帕金森那里得到的直接启发。从“科学是‘印纸中心’的累积活动”这一基本认识和假设出发，普赖斯继承并发展了基于历史统计的科学史定量研究方法，形成了“普赖斯三定律”。与此同时，普赖斯利用“科学引文索引”探秘科学论文的网络结构，描绘了从知识基础走向知识前沿的科学发展整体图景，开启了基于科学论文的引文分析主流方向。普赖斯既是科学史定量研究方法的积极宣扬者，也是富有成效的实践者。