Lotka's law and the literature of computer science

Abstract

¥tom empirical data on the authorship of scientific papers, Alfred Lotka deduced an inverse-square law relating the number of • authors of scientific papers to the number of papers written by each author. A basic assumption underlying Lotka's law is that the number of papers published by a scientist is a measure of his contribution to science. This assumption is debatable. In this paper Lotka's law is ap plied to the literature of computer science. The inconsistent results of earlier attempts to apply Lotka's law to the literature of various scien tific disciplines, including computer science, are ascribed to the differ ences in sampling procedure and treatment of multiple authorship.

Patterns of Research Productivity in the Business Ethics Literature: Insights from Analyses of Bibliometric Distributions

“…Specifically, the adjusted R 2 value in each case is 0.99. The remarkably high adjusted R 2 values in our analysis are quite comparable to those found in similar studies in related business management disciplines like economics, finance, accounting, and computer science (Chung and Cox 1990;Chung, Pak and Cox 1992;Cox and Chung 1991;Subramanyam 1979). Therefore, consistent with similar conclusion reached in past studies with respect to patterns of research productivity in more mature business management disciplines, we also find the Generalized Lotka's Law to be an excellent predictor of the pattern of research productivity in the business ethics discipline.…”

“…Our study covers both the leading journals in the business ethics discipline, viz., Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Business Ethics. We use a comprehensive data set that includes all research Bino et al (2005) Economics a Estimated concentration pattern relatively more diffused than predicted Chung and Cox (1990) Finance Estimated and predicted patterns very close Accounting Estimated and predicted patterns very close Chung and Puelz (1992) Risk Management Estimated and predicted patterns very close Cox and Chung (1991) Economics Estimated and predicted patterns very close Gupta et al (1998) Physics b Estimated and predicted patterns very close Murphy (1973) Humanities Estimated and predicted patterns very close Radhakrishnan and Kernizan (1979) Computer Science Estimated concentration pattern relatively more diffused than predicted Schorr (1975) Map librarianship Estimated and predicted patterns very close Schorr (1974) Library Science Estimated concentration pattern relatively more diffused than predicted Subramanyam (1979) Computer Science Estimated and predicted patterns very close Voos (1974) Information Science Estimated concentration pattern relatively more diffused than predicted Worthen (1978) Medicine Estimated concentration pattern relatively more diffused than predicted a Studies only economics journals based in India. b Studies only physics journals based in India.…”

Research productivity and breadth of interest of computer scientists

“…(0) General and Management Topics (1) Systems and Control Theory (3) Control Technology (4) Numerical Analysis and Theoretical Computer (5) Computer Hardware (6) Computer Software (7) Computer Applications Topics Each of the above subfields is further subdivided into three or more levels. CCA covers all aspects of computers and control, and scans a wide range of documents including journal articles, reports, books, dissertations, and conference papers published in all countries and languages of the world.…”

“…Sample size was determined according to a procedure suggested by Drott [5]. Drott has developed a table of sample sizes, especially applicable to studies in library and information science; this table gives conservative estimates of sample sizes which are greater than 30 but less than 10% of the total population.…”

A produtividade dos autores sobre a Lei de Lotka

“…Não obstante, o modelo do cubo inverso descrevia melhor esta literatura. Subramanyam (1979), analisando a literatura da ciência da computação de 1973 a 1975 (um período de três anos), constatou que esta literatura se ajustava bem ao modelo do quadrado inverso de Lotka e que o modelo do cubo inverso sugerido por Radhakrishnan & Kernizan (1979) não descrevia o comportamento dessa literatura. Essa falta de ajuste dos dados empíricos à distribuição teórica da produtividade dos autores levou Pao (1985Pao ( , 1986 e Nicholls (1986Nicholls ( , 1987Nicholls ( , 1989) a propor o modelo do poder inverso generalizado como alternativa ao modelo do quadrado inverso.…”