IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v106y2016i3d10.1007_s11192-016-1838-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of the principle of least effort across disciplines

Author

Listed:
  • Yu-Wei Chang

    (National Taiwan University)

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of the principle of least effort (PLE) introduced by Zipf in his 1949 work, Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology. The influence of the PLE was measured by examining articles across various disciplines published between 1950 and 2013 that cited Zipf’s original work. Our findings show that Zipf’s law was the most influential concept embedded in the original work, with the PLE being the second most cited concept. Although the PLE was the focus of Zipf’s 1949 book, its influence was much lower than that of Zipf’s law. Furthermore, Zipf’s law showed an increasing influence over time, whereas a decreasing influence was observed for the PLE. Of the 31 disciplines citing the PLE, library and information science articles cited it most, followed by psychology articles. Articles primarily cited the PLE to explain human behavior and language use. However, articles citing Zipf’s law focused on its formula.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu-Wei Chang, 2016. "Influence of the principle of least effort across disciplines," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 1117-1133, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:106:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-016-1838-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-016-1838-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-016-1838-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-016-1838-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chai Kim, 1982. "Retrieval language of social sciences and natural sciences: A statistical investigation," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 33(1), pages 1-7, January.
    2. Mu-Hsuan Huang & Yu-Wei Chang, 2012. "A comparative study of interdisciplinary changes between information science and library science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 789-803, June.
    3. Howard D. White, 2001. "Authors as citers over time," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 52(2), pages 87-108.
    4. Costanza, Robert & Stern, David & Fisher, Brendan & He, Lining & Ma, Chunbo, 2004. "Influential publications in ecological economics: a citation analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3-4), pages 261-292, October.
    5. Philip M. Podsakoff & Scott B. MacKenzie & Daniel G. Bachrach & Nathan P. Podsakoff, 2005. "The influence of management journals in the 1980s and 1990s," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 473-488, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agouzal, Abdellatif & Lafouge, Thierry & Bertin, Marc, 2024. "Relationship between the principle of least effort and the average cost of information in a zipfian context," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    2. Türk, Umut & Östh, John & Kourtit, Karima & Nijkamp, Peter, 2021. "The path of least resistance explaining tourist mobility patterns in destination areas using Airbnb data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rabishankar Giri & Sabuj Kumar Chaudhuri, 2021. "Ranking journals through the lens of active visibility," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2189-2208, March.
    2. Lakshmi Balachandran Nair & Michael Gibbert, 2016. "What makes a ‘good’ title and (how) does it matter for citations? A review and general model of article title attributes in management science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1331-1359, June.
    3. Goddard, Jessica J. & Kallis, Giorgos & Norgaard, Richard B., 2019. "Keeping multiple antennae up: Coevolutionary foundations for methodological pluralism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Yadong Luo & Huan Zhang & Juan Bu, 2019. "Developed country MNEs investing in developing economies: Progress and prospect," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(4), pages 633-667, June.
    5. Cristina López-Duarte & Jane F. Maley & Marta M. Vidal-Suárez, 2021. "Main challenges to international student mobility in the European arena," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(11), pages 8957-8980, November.
    6. Anja Heinicke, 2018. "Performance measurement systems in small and medium-sized enterprises and family firms: a systematic literature review," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 457-502, February.
    7. D. R. Amancio & M. G. V. Nunes & O. N. Oliveira & L. F. Costa, 2012. "Using complex networks concepts to assess approaches for citations in scientific papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 827-842, June.
    8. Maksym Polyakov & Morteza Chalak & Md. Sayed Iftekhar & Ram Pandit & Sorada Tapsuwan & Fan Zhang & Chunbo Ma, 2018. "Authorship, Collaboration, Topics, and Research Gaps in Environmental and Resource Economics 1991–2015," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(1), pages 217-239, September.
    9. Centobelli, Piera & Cerchione, Roberto & Esposito, Emilio & Shashi,, 2019. "Exploration and exploitation in the development of more entrepreneurial universities: A twisting learning path model of ambidexterity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 172-194.
    10. Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Raimund Bleischwitz, 2020. "Business models for environmental sustainability: Contemporary shortcomings and some perspectives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3352-3369, December.
    11. Del Vecchio, Pasquale & Secundo, Giustina & Garzoni, Antonello, 2023. "Phygital technologies and environments for breakthrough innovation in customers' and citizens' journey. A critical literature review and future agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    12. Frederique Bordignon, 2020. "Self-correction of science: a comparative study of negative citations and post-publication peer review," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(2), pages 1225-1239, August.
    13. Manuel Sánchez-Pérez & Nuria Rueda-López & María Belén Marín-Carrillo & Eduardo Terán-Yépez, 2021. "Theoretical dilemmas, conceptual review and perspectives disclosure of the sharing economy: a qualitative analysis," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(7), pages 1849-1883, October.
    14. Timothy Clark & Mike Wright & Zilia Iskoujina & Philip Garnett, 2014. "JMS at 50: Trends over Time," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 19-37, January.
    15. Mahavarpour, Nasrin & Marvi, Reza & Foroudi, Pantea, 2023. "A Brief History of Service Innovation: The evolution of past, present, and future of service innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    16. Ancillai, Chiara & Sabatini, Andrea & Gatti, Marco & Perna, Andrea, 2023. "Digital technology and business model innovation: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    17. Henry Small, 2004. "Why authors think their papers are highly cited," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 305-316, August.
    18. Maria Psillaki & Nikolaos Apostolopoulos & Ilias Makris & Panagiotis Liargovas & Sotiris Apostolopoulos & Panos Dimitrakopoulos & George Sklias, 2023. "Hospitals’ Energy Efficiency in the Perspective of Saving Resources and Providing Quality Services through Technological Options: A Systematic Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-21, January.
    19. Kube, Roland & Löschel, Andreas & Mertens, Henrik & Requate, Till, 2017. "40 years of JEEM: Research trends and influential publications in environmental and resource economics," CAWM Discussion Papers 95, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    20. Maribel Guerrero & Francisco Liñán & F. Rafael Cáceres-Carrasco, 2021. "The influence of ecosystems on the entrepreneurship process: a comparison across developed and developing economies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1733-1759, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:106:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-016-1838-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.