Implications of the exact bradford distribution

Abstract

The exact Bradford distribution fits data on the scatter of articles in a given specialty among journals remarkably well, perhaps better than the approximate form of the distribution. This implies certain tendencies of authors in the specialty to distribute their future articles among the journals, on the basis of the past productivity (the number of articles previously published) of the journals. In particular it is shown that if this tendency follows a Bradford law for each group of journals with a given past productivity, then the distribution of papers among all the journals active in the specialty must also follow the exact Bradford distribution. Conversely, since this distribution does fit the data, it implies that the authors' tendencies also are Bradford. The consequences, when the statistical situation is fairly constant with time, are explored. Applications to citation scattering also are discussed.