Competition amongst scientists for publication status:Toward a model of scientific publication and citation distributions

Anthony F. J. Van Raan ()
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Anthony F. J. Van Raan: University of Leiden

Scientometrics, 2001, vol. 51, issue 1, No 19, 347-357

Abstract: Abstract We present a model in which scientists compete with each other in order to acquire status fortheir publications in a two-step-process: first, to get their work published in better journals, andsecond, to get this work cited in these journals. On the basis of two Maxwell-Boltzmann typedistribution functions of source publications we derive a distribution function of citingpublications over source publications. This distribution function corresponds very well to theempirical data. In contrast to all observations so far, we conclude that this distribution of citationsover publications, which is a crucial phenomenon in scientometrics, is not a power law, but amodified Bessel-function.

Date: 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1023/A:1010501820393

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