This study finds a bibliometric regularity in the finance literature that the number of authors publishing n papers is about 1/nc of those publishing one paper. We find that the finance literature conforms very well to the inverse square law (c=2) if data are taken from a large collection of journals. When applied to individual finance journals, we find that values of c range from 1.95 to 3.26. We also find that top‐rated journals have higher concentrations among their contributors. This implies that the phenomenon “success breeds success” is more common in higher quality publications.

No abstract

This study examines whether any regularity exists in the publication pattern among accounting researchers. The empirical results reveal that a strong bibliometric regularity exists in the accounting literature: the number of authors publishing in papers is approximately 1 /n' of those publishing one paper. It is shown that the accounting literature conforms very well to the model with c = 1.872 if data are taken from a large collection of journals. When applied to individual journals, the result shows that values of c range from 2.220 to 4.368. The graduates of seven graduate programs are found to account for more than one-third of the most prolific authors, indicating strong institutional dominance in the production of accounting literature.It is well known that a high degree of skewness exists in the distribution of output among individuals in certain kinds of human activity. The phenomenon 'success breeds success', wherein a relatively small number of people dominate the activities in which they are engaged, is frequently observed in vario-,s social settings. For instance, there are only a few hundred full-time soloists on any given musical instrument, although the market for classical music has never been larger than it is now. Furthermore, only a few first-rate performers out of this small total dominate the market for live-performance and commercial recording. These phenomena are analogous to the folk saying 'the rich get richer and the poor get poorer '.Lotka's Law of scientific productivity is a bibliometric example of such empirical laws. Lotka (1926) proposes an inverse square law relating authors of scientific papers to the number of papers written by each author. Using data in the decennial index of Chemical Abstracts and in the name index of Auerbach's Geschichtstafeln der Physik, Lotka plots the number of authors against the number of contributions KEE H.

No abstract

No abstract