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The distribution of the uncitedness factor and its functional relation with the impact factor

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  • L. Egghe

    (Universiteit Hasselt (UHasselt))

Abstract

The uncitedness factor of a journal is its fraction of uncited articles. Given a set of journals (e.g. in a field) we can determine the rank-order distribution of these uncitedness factors. Hereby we use the Central Limit Theorem which is valid for uncitedness factors since it are fractions, hence averages. A similar result was proved earlier for the impact factors of a set of journals. Here we combine the two rank-order distributions, hereby eliminating the rank, yielding the functional relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor. It is proved that the decreasing relation has an S-shape: first convex, then concave and that the inflection point is in the point (μ′, μ) where μ is the average of the impact factors and μ′ is the average of the uncitedness factors.

Suggested Citation

  • L. Egghe, 2010. "The distribution of the uncitedness factor and its functional relation with the impact factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(3), pages 689-695, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:83:y:2010:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-009-0130-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0130-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mansilla, R. & Köppen, E. & Cocho, G. & Miramontes, P., 2007. "On the behavior of journal impact factor rank-order distribution," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 155-160.
    2. Leo Egghe, 2008. "The mathematical relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 76(1), pages 117-123, July.
    3. Thed N. van Leeuwen & Henk F. Moed, 2005. "Characteristics of journal impact factors: The effects of uncitedness and citation distribution on the understanding of journal impact factors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(2), pages 357-371, April.
    4. Egghe, L., 2009. "Mathematical derivation of the impact factor distribution," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 290-295.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jianhua Hou & Jiantao Ye, 2020. "Are uncited papers necessarily all nonimpact papers? A quantitative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(2), pages 1631-1662, August.
    2. Petr Heneberg, 2013. "Lifting the fog of scientometric research artifacts: On the scientometric analysis of environmental tobacco smoke research," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(2), pages 334-344, February.
    3. Hu, Zewen & Wu, Yishan, 2014. "Regularity in the time-dependent distribution of the percentage of never-cited papers: An empirical pilot study based on the six journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 136-146.
    4. Burrell, Quentin L., 2013. "A stochastic approach to the relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 676-682.
    5. Zewen Hu & Yishan Wu & Jianjun Sun, 2018. "A quantitative analysis of determinants of non-citation using a panel data model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 843-861, August.
    6. Serenko, Alexander & Bontis, Nick, 2013. "First in, best dressed: The presence of order-effect bias in journal ranking surveys," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 138-144.
    7. Egghe, L., 2013. "The functional relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor revisited," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 183-189.
    8. Zewen Hu & Angela Lin & Peter Willett, 2019. "Identification of research communities in cited and uncited publications using a co-authorship network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(1), pages 1-19, January.

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