Statistical disorder and the analysis of a communication‐graph

Abstract

The lines of a co‐author graph represent channels of communication through which information has been and may continue to be informally exchanged. The Brillouin Information Measure can be used to describe important properties of the co‐author graph and other communication‐graphs. The “connectedness” of a graph can be represented on a scale in which one limiting value signifies a connected graph and the other limiting value signifies a graph in which all points are isolated. Important points can be distinguished from all other points in a communication‐graph. These important points are defined mathematically and are called synthetic cutpoints. A measure of importance can be assigned to each point in a communication‐graph. This measure can be used to order points in terms of their contribution to a favorable communication‐structure.

Communicating MIS research: A citation study of journal influence

“…san, 1975), there is evidence that such analysis is a reasonable way to judge journal influence through use (Garfield, 1972;Smith, 1981;Jensen, Long, Smith, Stulz, & Warner, 1987). Journal cohesiveness can be measured, for example, by determining the effect of each journal upon the amount of communication entropy (disorder) existing in a system of journals publishing articles on the same subject (Shaw, 1981(Shaw, , 1983Pao, 1980;Boyce & Martin, 1981).…”

“…A measure of this mutual citation strength used in bibliometric research relates the effect of each journal to the amount of communication entropy (disorder) existing in a system of journals publishing articles on the same subject (the Brillouin measure: Shaw, 1981Shaw, , 1983Pao, 1980;Boyce & Martin, 1981). In this analysis, the data in Table 3 (Shannon & Weaver, 1963) to measure the amount of communication entropy within a set of journals.…”

The intellectual structure of the strategic management field: an author co‐citation analysis

“…Extending this research over future periods will tell whether these trends are of an enduring nature or a reflection of the intellectual currents of the last decade. Similarly, additional data analytic procedures like entropy analysis, derived from Shannon and Weaver's (1963) theory of communications, can provide further insights on the extent to which each author contributes to the order or stability of the communications network (e.g., Shaw, 1981Shaw, , 1983. The RR paper represents the beginning of the effort to use bibliometric methods to delineate the intellectual structure of a field.…”

Citation footprints on the sands of time: An analysis of idea migrations in strategic management

“…The PFNet is essentially a communication graph that can be analyzed to assess the extent to which each journal contributes to the stability of the network (Cooper et al . ; Shaw, , ; Sullivan et al, ).…”