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Power laws of research output. Evidence for journals of economics

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  • Matthias Sutter

    (University of Innsbruck)

  • Martin G. Kochner

    (University of Innsbruck)

Abstract

In this paper we examine the validity of Lotka's law and Zipf'slaw for research output in 15 top journals of economics in the period 1977to 1997. Our data for individual authors satisfy a general form of Lotka'slaw. We find increasing competition over time among economists on the individuallevel. However, publications in top journals are concentrated heavily whenthe institutional level is under consideration. Research output of institutionscan be fit adequately by Zipf's law.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Sutter & Martin G. Kochner, 2001. "Power laws of research output. Evidence for journals of economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 51(2), pages 405-414, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:51:y:2001:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1012757802706
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1012757802706
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    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Rousseau, 2002. "Lack of standardisation in informetric research. Comments on “Power laws of research output. Evidence for journals of economics” by Matthias Sutter and Martin G. Kocher," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 55(2), pages 317-327, August.
    2. Hohberger, Jan, 2016. "Does it pay to stand on the shoulders of giants? An analysis of the inventions of star inventors in the biotechnology sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 682-698.
    3. Star X. Zhao & Shuang Yu & Alice M. Tan & Xin Xu & Haiyan Yu, 2016. "Global pattern of science funding in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(1), pages 463-479, October.
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    5. Azar Ofer H., 2015. "A Model of the Academic Review Process with Informed Authors," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 865-889, April.
    6. Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo & J. Sylvan Katz, 2018. "The power law relationship between citation impact and multi-authorship patterns in articles in Information Science & Library Science journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 919-932, March.
    7. Mincheol Choi & Chang-Yang Lee, 2020. "Power-law distributions of corporate innovative output: evidence from U.S. patent data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(1), pages 519-554, January.
    8. Jan Schulz, 2016. "Using Monte Carlo simulations to assess the impact of author name disambiguation quality on different bibliometric analyses," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1283-1298, June.
    9. Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo, 2017. "The citation-based impact of complex innovation systems scales with the size of the system," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 141-151, July.
    10. Alain Molinari & Jean-Francois Molinari, 2008. "Mathematical aspects of a new criterion for ranking scientific institutions based on the h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(2), pages 339-356, May.

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