A stochastic approach to the relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor

Quentin L. Burrell

Journal of Informetrics, 2013, vol. 7, issue 3, 676-682

Abstract: Empirical analysis of the relationship between the impact factor – as measured by the average number of citations – and the proportion of uncited material in a collection dates back at least to van Leeuwen and Moed (2005) where graphical presentations revealed striking patterns. Recently Hsu and Huang (2012) have proposed a simple functional relationship. Here it is shown that the general features of these observed regularities are predicted by a well-established informetric model which enables us to derive a theoretical van Leeuwen–Moed lower bound. We also question some of the arguments of Hsu and Huang (2012) and Egghe (2013) while various issues raised by Egghe (2008, 2013) are also addressed.

Keywords: Impact factor; Uncitedness factor; Gamma-Poisson process; Success-breeds-success; van Leeuwen–Moed lower bound (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157713000217
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:7:y:2013:i:3:p:676-682

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2013.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Informetrics is currently edited by Leo Egghe

More articles in Journal of Informetrics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().