Lotka's Law and bibliometric literature

Abstract

LOTKA'S LAW IS SIMPLY THE DESCRIPTION OF A QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUTHORS AND ARTICLES PRODUCED IN A GIVEN FIELD AND PERIOD OF TIME. IT DEMONSTRATES THAT THE RE EXISTS AN UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION WHERE MOST OF THE ARTICLES ARE CONCENTRATED IN A SMALL PORTION OF HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE AUTHORS WITH A NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR PRODUCTIVITY OF MORE OR LESS EQUAL TO TWO. DESPITE THE NUMEROUS RESEARCHES REPORTED ON THE TOPIC, THE RESULTS SEEM TO BE CONFLICTING AND IN CONCLUSIVE, AND DO NOT PRO VIDE A CLEAR VALIDATION OF LOTKA'S LAW. BECAUSE BOTH ITS LEGITIMATION AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION AS A FIELD AND ALSO THE AVAILABILITY OF A BIBLIOGRAPHY IN THIS AREA, THE FIELD OF BIBLIOMETRICS WAS CHOSEN TO TEST THE APPLICABILITY OF THE LOTKA'S LAW. THE DATA WAS COLLECTED FROM THE "BIBLIOGRAPHY OF "BIBLIOMETRICS AND CITATION INDEXING & ANALYSIS" ELABORATED BY HJERPPE AND PUBLISHED IN 1980. THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY COVERS A PERIOD OF 80 YEARS, LONG ENOUGH TO EXPECT THAT THE AUTHOR'S PRODUCTIVITY APPROXIMATES THE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION THAT LOTKA OBSERVED. STRAIT COUNT WAS ADOPTED AND THEREFORE ONLY SENIOR AUTHORS WERE CREDITED WITH FULL CONTRIBUTION TO THE PRODUCTION OF AN ARTICLE. OF THE 2032 ARTICLES IDENTIFIED, 41 ARTICLES WERE ELIMINATED BECAUSE THEY WERE PRODUCED BY EITHER CORPORATE BODIES OR ANONYMOUS AUTHORS OR THROUGH INCORRECT CITATIONS. tHIS WEDDING PROCESS RESULTED IN A FINAL POPULATION OF 1991 ARTICLES PRODUCED BY 1124 AUTHORS. AT THE 0.01 LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE THE CRITICAL VALUE WAS FOUND TO BE 0.048706 AND THE DMAX WAS 0.042272; THEREFORE , THIS LITERATURE DID CONFORM TO THE LOTKA'S LAW.