Against the vision of bibliometrics as a unified and coherent whole, this article identifies three major components of information infrastructures that support the evaluation of scientific research: algorithms, datasets, and bibliometric tools. Tracing the genesis and success of some of these components, from 1960 to the present day, the authors identify several configurations which differentially articulate the position of dataset producers, the target of algorithms, and the form of bibliometric tools. This diachronic narrative shows repeated encounters between bibliometrics and webometrics and highlights the fact that any assessment is necessarily based on a definition of relevant peers.
