Jayroe Bibliometrics for Dummies 2008Bibliometrics (or bibliometry) is included with other mathematical and statistical analysis methods
under the umbrella of informatics/information science. Bibliometrics has been used for almost a century
as a descriptive and evaluative science.1
The term “bibliometrics” was coined by Alan Pritchard in 1969.
Prior to this, the field had been labeled “statistical bibliography” by British librarian E. Wyndham Hulme in
1922
Bibliometrics literally means "book measurement" but the term is used about all kinds of documents (with journal articles as the dominant kind of document).
What is measured are not the physical properties of documents but statistical patterns in variables such as authorship, sources, subjects, geographical origins, and citations.
This presentation is about citing articles in journals in the research papers in different reference styles like APA Style, Chicago Style, Harvard Style, MLA Style etc.
Penelusuran dan Penyajian Informas ilmiah - Scientific Information LiteracyM. Prabu Wibowo
Literasi Informasi di Dunia Akademik - Information Literacy in Academic World
Scientific Information Literacy
Literasi Informasi Ilmiah
ICT Literacy
Computer Literacy
Information Searching Techniques
Steps in Research
Mind Map
Zotero
Reference Management
Quote
Paraphrase
Kutipan
Parafrase
Micro-Teaching onRESEARCH METRICS in the Refresher Course on Digital Transf...Surendra Kumar Pal
Micro-Teaching
on RESEARCH METRICS in
the Refresher Course on Digital Transformation of LIS Education and Services organized by Central Library, Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar, MP
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF A TECHNICAL ESSAY .docxdirkrplav
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF A
TECHNICAL ESSAY
INTRODUCTION
The technical essay is a review paper that synthesizes and interprets work
on a particular subject area. Therefore, the format is not as standardized as that
of a research paper. By bringing together the most pertinent findings of
numerous papers from diverse journals, a review paper serves as a valuable
summary of research. In writing your essay, interpret the primary journal article
in a series of paragraphs that build on your discussion, giving particular attention
to the problem or topic posed in your introduction. In addition, relate your
findings to previous observations or experiments from the supplemental
references that you have chosen. Discuss briefly any logical implications of the
journal articles for practical application or future studies. A good review paper
not only synthesizes information; it also provides a critical overview of an
important scientific problem.
After you have finished your first draft of your essay, review the structure
of your manuscript. Are the sections arranged in logical sequence? After you
are satisfied with the structure of your essay manuscript, attend to the details:
the paragraphs, the sentences, and the words. Expect to do several drafts of
your paper before you are satisfied with the final product. Good writing is
generally the product of careful rewriting or revising in which you evaluate your
attempts at organizing and expressing your ideas. In the process you end up
scrutinizing the ideas themselves, as well as your own mastery of the subject.
CITING REFERENCE MATERIALS
The text of a biological paper usually contains numerous literature
citations, or references, to the published studies of other authors. This is
because scientists rarely work in a vacuum; hypotheses are developed, tested,
and evaluated in the context of what other scientists have written and discovered.
Thus, careful documentation, or acknowledgment of the work of others, is
essential to good scientific writing. Biologists also need to provide literature
citations because, like other writers, they have an ethical and legal obligation to
give credit to others for material that is not their own. Such material includes not
only direct quotations, but also findings or ideas that stem from the work of
someone else.
Unlike writers in the humanities and social sciences, biologists rarely use
footnotes or endnotes to acknowledge sources. Instead, they insert literature
citations directly in the text, either by giving the last name of the author(s) and the
year of publication (name-and-year method), or by referring to each source by a
number method. Such rules, even if they seem arbitrary, make the reporting of
2
references an orderly activity, minimizing confusion for writers, readers, editors,
and publishers.
In this course, the name-and-year method, also known as the Harvard
method,.
Co-word analyses study the co-occurrence of pairs of items (for example, keywords) that are representative in a document, to identify relations between the ideas presented in the
texts.
From TeacherTo assist you with preparing the Week 7 assignment.docxhanneloremccaffery
From Teacher
To assist you with preparing the Week 7 assignment, I am providing a few additional resources. Attached is a slide deck I created on coding textual data, and below are links to a video on coding and an article on identifying themes in qualitative data. Also, some learners find the Week 8 lecture helpful to this assignment, so I have attached it here as well.
As you prepare this assignment, closely follow the directions in the PSY 850 Assignments Document. Because it asks you to inductively code the data, I will expect to see that each of you have developed your own codes and themes. That means do not use the codes and themes from the Clark and Springer (2007) article. However, you should compare and contrast your findings with theirs in the recommendations section.
Submit one paper in APA format with the required subsections delineated in the Assignments Guide: Introduction, Sample, Instruments, Data Analysis, Results, and Recommendations. Include a references list. You must complete all three tables in the Tables for Assignment 7 document and include those tables as an Appendix in your document. Do not submit them as a separate document nor embed them within the text of the paper.
Please use this space to ask additional questions about the assignment.
Thanks and happy coding,
Paula
Video on Coding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRL4PF2u9XA
GCU Recommended article on Techniques to Identify Themes in Qualitative Data
http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/Readings/ryan-bernard_techniques_to_identify_themes_in.htm
Attached FilesPSY-850-L8.pdfCoding Textual Data.pptx
Dr. Paula Thompson
Senior Doctoral Adjunct Chair
College of Doctoral Studies
[email protected]
Schedule meetings with me at: http://meetme.so/PaulaThompson
problem12.13
Techniques to Identify Themes in Qualitative Data
Gery W. Ryan
RAND
1700 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
H. Russell Bernard
Department of Anthropology
1350 Turlington Hall
University of Florida
Gaineville, FL 32611
Key Words: Theme Identification, Exploratory Analysis, Open Coding, Text Analysis, Qualitative Research Methods
Abstract
Theme identification is one of the most fundamental tasks in qualitative research. It also one of the most mysterious. Explicit descriptions of theme discovery are rarely described in articles and reports and if so are often regulated to appendices or footnotes. Techniques are shared among small groups of social scientists and are often impeded by disciplinary or epistemological boundaries. During the proposal-writing phase of a project, investigators struggle to clearly explain and justify plans for discovering themes. These issues are particularly cogent when funding reviewers are unfamiliar with qualitative traditions. In this article we have outlined a dozen techniques that social scientists have used to discover themes in texts. The techniques are drawn from across epistemological and disciplinary boundaries. They ...
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
Bibliometrics literally means "book measurement" but the term is used about all kinds of documents (with journal articles as the dominant kind of document).
What is measured are not the physical properties of documents but statistical patterns in variables such as authorship, sources, subjects, geographical origins, and citations.
This presentation is about citing articles in journals in the research papers in different reference styles like APA Style, Chicago Style, Harvard Style, MLA Style etc.
Penelusuran dan Penyajian Informas ilmiah - Scientific Information LiteracyM. Prabu Wibowo
Literasi Informasi di Dunia Akademik - Information Literacy in Academic World
Scientific Information Literacy
Literasi Informasi Ilmiah
ICT Literacy
Computer Literacy
Information Searching Techniques
Steps in Research
Mind Map
Zotero
Reference Management
Quote
Paraphrase
Kutipan
Parafrase
Micro-Teaching onRESEARCH METRICS in the Refresher Course on Digital Transf...Surendra Kumar Pal
Micro-Teaching
on RESEARCH METRICS in
the Refresher Course on Digital Transformation of LIS Education and Services organized by Central Library, Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar, MP
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF A TECHNICAL ESSAY .docxdirkrplav
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION OF A
TECHNICAL ESSAY
INTRODUCTION
The technical essay is a review paper that synthesizes and interprets work
on a particular subject area. Therefore, the format is not as standardized as that
of a research paper. By bringing together the most pertinent findings of
numerous papers from diverse journals, a review paper serves as a valuable
summary of research. In writing your essay, interpret the primary journal article
in a series of paragraphs that build on your discussion, giving particular attention
to the problem or topic posed in your introduction. In addition, relate your
findings to previous observations or experiments from the supplemental
references that you have chosen. Discuss briefly any logical implications of the
journal articles for practical application or future studies. A good review paper
not only synthesizes information; it also provides a critical overview of an
important scientific problem.
After you have finished your first draft of your essay, review the structure
of your manuscript. Are the sections arranged in logical sequence? After you
are satisfied with the structure of your essay manuscript, attend to the details:
the paragraphs, the sentences, and the words. Expect to do several drafts of
your paper before you are satisfied with the final product. Good writing is
generally the product of careful rewriting or revising in which you evaluate your
attempts at organizing and expressing your ideas. In the process you end up
scrutinizing the ideas themselves, as well as your own mastery of the subject.
CITING REFERENCE MATERIALS
The text of a biological paper usually contains numerous literature
citations, or references, to the published studies of other authors. This is
because scientists rarely work in a vacuum; hypotheses are developed, tested,
and evaluated in the context of what other scientists have written and discovered.
Thus, careful documentation, or acknowledgment of the work of others, is
essential to good scientific writing. Biologists also need to provide literature
citations because, like other writers, they have an ethical and legal obligation to
give credit to others for material that is not their own. Such material includes not
only direct quotations, but also findings or ideas that stem from the work of
someone else.
Unlike writers in the humanities and social sciences, biologists rarely use
footnotes or endnotes to acknowledge sources. Instead, they insert literature
citations directly in the text, either by giving the last name of the author(s) and the
year of publication (name-and-year method), or by referring to each source by a
number method. Such rules, even if they seem arbitrary, make the reporting of
2
references an orderly activity, minimizing confusion for writers, readers, editors,
and publishers.
In this course, the name-and-year method, also known as the Harvard
method,.
Co-word analyses study the co-occurrence of pairs of items (for example, keywords) that are representative in a document, to identify relations between the ideas presented in the
texts.
From TeacherTo assist you with preparing the Week 7 assignment.docxhanneloremccaffery
From Teacher
To assist you with preparing the Week 7 assignment, I am providing a few additional resources. Attached is a slide deck I created on coding textual data, and below are links to a video on coding and an article on identifying themes in qualitative data. Also, some learners find the Week 8 lecture helpful to this assignment, so I have attached it here as well.
As you prepare this assignment, closely follow the directions in the PSY 850 Assignments Document. Because it asks you to inductively code the data, I will expect to see that each of you have developed your own codes and themes. That means do not use the codes and themes from the Clark and Springer (2007) article. However, you should compare and contrast your findings with theirs in the recommendations section.
Submit one paper in APA format with the required subsections delineated in the Assignments Guide: Introduction, Sample, Instruments, Data Analysis, Results, and Recommendations. Include a references list. You must complete all three tables in the Tables for Assignment 7 document and include those tables as an Appendix in your document. Do not submit them as a separate document nor embed them within the text of the paper.
Please use this space to ask additional questions about the assignment.
Thanks and happy coding,
Paula
Video on Coding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRL4PF2u9XA
GCU Recommended article on Techniques to Identify Themes in Qualitative Data
http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/Readings/ryan-bernard_techniques_to_identify_themes_in.htm
Attached FilesPSY-850-L8.pdfCoding Textual Data.pptx
Dr. Paula Thompson
Senior Doctoral Adjunct Chair
College of Doctoral Studies
[email protected]
Schedule meetings with me at: http://meetme.so/PaulaThompson
problem12.13
Techniques to Identify Themes in Qualitative Data
Gery W. Ryan
RAND
1700 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
H. Russell Bernard
Department of Anthropology
1350 Turlington Hall
University of Florida
Gaineville, FL 32611
Key Words: Theme Identification, Exploratory Analysis, Open Coding, Text Analysis, Qualitative Research Methods
Abstract
Theme identification is one of the most fundamental tasks in qualitative research. It also one of the most mysterious. Explicit descriptions of theme discovery are rarely described in articles and reports and if so are often regulated to appendices or footnotes. Techniques are shared among small groups of social scientists and are often impeded by disciplinary or epistemological boundaries. During the proposal-writing phase of a project, investigators struggle to clearly explain and justify plans for discovering themes. These issues are particularly cogent when funding reviewers are unfamiliar with qualitative traditions. In this article we have outlined a dozen techniques that social scientists have used to discover themes in texts. The techniques are drawn from across epistemological and disciplinary boundaries. They ...
Similar to Jayroe Bibliometrics for Dummies 2008 (20)
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
Seminar of U.V. Spectroscopy by SAMIR PANDASAMIR PANDA
Spectroscopy is a branch of science dealing the study of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy refers to absorption spectroscopy or reflect spectroscopy in the UV-VIS spectral region.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy is an analytical method that can measure the amount of light received by the analyte.
This presentation explores a brief idea about the structural and functional attributes of nucleotides, the structure and function of genetic materials along with the impact of UV rays and pH upon them.
Richard's aventures in two entangled wonderlandsRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
Richard's entangled aventures in wonderlandRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
Deep Behavioral Phenotyping in Systems Neuroscience for Functional Atlasing a...Ana Luísa Pinho
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides means to characterize brain activations in response to behavior. However, cognitive neuroscience has been limited to group-level effects referring to the performance of specific tasks. To obtain the functional profile of elementary cognitive mechanisms, the combination of brain responses to many tasks is required. Yet, to date, both structural atlases and parcellation-based activations do not fully account for cognitive function and still present several limitations. Further, they do not adapt overall to individual characteristics. In this talk, I will give an account of deep-behavioral phenotyping strategies, namely data-driven methods in large task-fMRI datasets, to optimize functional brain-data collection and improve inference of effects-of-interest related to mental processes. Key to this approach is the employment of fast multi-functional paradigms rich on features that can be well parametrized and, consequently, facilitate the creation of psycho-physiological constructs to be modelled with imaging data. Particular emphasis will be given to music stimuli when studying high-order cognitive mechanisms, due to their ecological nature and quality to enable complex behavior compounded by discrete entities. I will also discuss how deep-behavioral phenotyping and individualized models applied to neuroimaging data can better account for the subject-specific organization of domain-general cognitive systems in the human brain. Finally, the accumulation of functional brain signatures brings the possibility to clarify relationships among tasks and create a univocal link between brain systems and mental functions through: (1) the development of ontologies proposing an organization of cognitive processes; and (2) brain-network taxonomies describing functional specialization. To this end, tools to improve commensurability in cognitive science are necessary, such as public repositories, ontology-based platforms and automated meta-analysis tools. I will thus discuss some brain-atlasing resources currently under development, and their applicability in cognitive as well as clinical neuroscience.
(May 29th, 2024) Advancements in Intravital Microscopy- Insights for Preclini...Scintica Instrumentation
Intravital microscopy (IVM) is a powerful tool utilized to study cellular behavior over time and space in vivo. Much of our understanding of cell biology has been accomplished using various in vitro and ex vivo methods; however, these studies do not necessarily reflect the natural dynamics of biological processes. Unlike traditional cell culture or fixed tissue imaging, IVM allows for the ultra-fast high-resolution imaging of cellular processes over time and space and were studied in its natural environment. Real-time visualization of biological processes in the context of an intact organism helps maintain physiological relevance and provide insights into the progression of disease, response to treatments or developmental processes.
In this webinar we give an overview of advanced applications of the IVM system in preclinical research. IVIM technology is a provider of all-in-one intravital microscopy systems and solutions optimized for in vivo imaging of live animal models at sub-micron resolution. The system’s unique features and user-friendly software enables researchers to probe fast dynamic biological processes such as immune cell tracking, cell-cell interaction as well as vascularization and tumor metastasis with exceptional detail. This webinar will also give an overview of IVM being utilized in drug development, offering a view into the intricate interaction between drugs/nanoparticles and tissues in vivo and allows for the evaluation of therapeutic intervention in a variety of tissues and organs. This interdisciplinary collaboration continues to drive the advancements of novel therapeutic strategies.
Comparing Evolved Extractive Text Summary Scores of Bidirectional Encoder Rep...University of Maribor
Slides from:
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Track: Artificial Intelligence
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
1. Bibliometrics for Dummies
Tina Jayroe
University of Denver
Dottore Shimelis G. Assefa, PhD
Informazioni Scienza
23 settembre 2008
2. Jayroe
2
Bibliometrics (or bibliometry) is included with other mathematical and statistical analysis methods
under the umbrella of informatics/information science. Bibliometrics has been used for almost a century
as a descriptive and evaluative science.1
The term “bibliometrics” was coined by Alan Pritchard in 1969.
Prior to this, the field had been labeled “statistical bibliography” by British librarian E. Wyndham Hulme in
1922 (Diodato, 1994, p. 154).
Bibliometrics can overlap with informetrics, the mathematical and statistical study of patterns in
documentation and information; and scientometrics, the mathematical and statistical analysis of research
patterns in life and physical sciences. It is associated with cybermetrics, the study of the quantitative
analysis of scholarly and scientific communications in the Internet. And even cliometrics, the study of
historical data by use of statistical techniques, uses some of its aspects because “the study of history
involves the study of information” (Diodato, 1994, p. 42).
Philosophically, bibliometrics contributes to a better understanding of the information universe
because it is the study of how humans relate to information (Bates, 1999, p. 1048). Ronald Rousseau
states that “bibliometric (or informetric) research has developed a rich body of theoretical knowledge,
which in turn aims at finding wider applications in all practical aspects of information work” (1990, p. 197).
In library science, bibliometrics usually refers to the analysis of patterns of data and information
as it pertains to literature—especially scholarly authorship, publication, and communication—by
employing certain methods and “laws.” It has a significant impact in the area of information retrieval, and
now scientists are using bibliometrics to study link structures in the Internet, also known as webometrics.
Ultimately, all applications of bibliometrics help to make meta-information explicit in the paradigm of
information science. This paper focuses on the three major bibliometric laws, citation analysis, and a brief
look at webometrics.
The major empirical laws of bibliometrics are Bradford’s law, Lotka’s law, and Zipf’s law. They are
“the ones that have been used most often in the literature to model the distribution of information
phenomena” (Chen & Leimkuhler, 2006, p. 308). While all three laws result in similar probability
distributions, the differences lie in the data being analyzed. These are what Dr. Virgil Diodato calls items
and sources:
In a Bradford analysis, the items are often journal articles, and the sources are then the journals
that produce the articles. . . . In a Lotka analysis . . . the sources are authors, and the items are
3. Jayroe
3
the documents that the authors produce. In Zipf’s law, the sources are the text, or more precisely
the rank of the words in the text, and the items are the numbers of occurrences that each ranked
word produces (1994, p. 93).
In library and information science these are applied and analyzed in order to predict patterns of recorded
information and communications. Libraries can then develop theories on why certain structures and
patterns occur, subsequently creating practices that enable the best use of information behavior based on
those findings.
Bradford’s Law
In 1934 mathematician and librarian Samuel C. Bradford came up with the bibliometric formula
1: n: n², which basically states that most articles are produced by few sources and the rest are made up
of many separate sources. This law can also be referred to as Bradford's Distribution, The Law of Scatter,
and The Law of Scattering or simply core and scattering (Diodato, 1994, p. 24). The reason for this
labeling is that when the data are demonstrated visually, there is a cluster (or nucleus) near the journal
that produces the most articles on a given topic. When displayed in relation to the topic, the distribution
for the remaining data tends to be scattered among the many journals that produce significantly fewer
articles. Bradford gives these data their own mathematical equations and designates them to fall within
certain “zones.”
To enter these data into a graph would result in what is called a Bradford Curve, which looks like
the letter “J” or “S” when displayed on a chart. Bradford’s law is thought to be the basis of the 80/20 rule
in librarianship—80% of the items used are 20% of the library’s collection (Raber, 2003, p. 73).
Lotka’s Law
Formulated by Alfred J. Lotka in 1926, it is also known as the inverse square law or inverse
exponential law, and is used to determine the most prolific authors within a discipline. It usually proves
that there are only a few authors who contribute to a field as a publication increases in quantity.
Lotka was a mathematician. While working at the Statistical Bureau of the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company, he started counting the names of authors and compared them to the numbers of
publications in Chemical Abstracts between 1907 and 1916 (Hertzel, 2003, p.303). From this he devised
4. Jayroe
4
the formula xn
y = c “where: y is the portion of authors making x contributions each; n and c are
parameters that depend on the field being analyzed” (Diodato, 1994, p. 105, 106).
Lotka’s law has been highly applicable to various areas of publication but especially in
determining “patterns of productivity among chemists” (Chen & Leimkuhler, 1986, p. 307). It has been
debated whether it is applicable to librarianship (Hertzel, 2003, p. 304, 305), but is definitely useful in the
area of collection development and information retrieval (Raber, 2003, p. 72).
Zipf’s Law
Zipf’s law, sometimes called Zipf’s Law for Words of High Frequency, or the Principle of Least
Effort is based on natural-language corpus and the frequency in which a word is used in a text. It is
named after philologist George Kingsley Zipf and actually consists of two laws. Specifically, it is the first
law that analyzes the frequency/distribution of a word in a text and then uses that analysis to determine
its rank among other frequently used words within the text. Zipf’s second law is a formula for words with
low frequencies (Diodato, 1994, p. 167, 168).
The formula for Zipf’s law is rf = c “where r is the rank of a word-type, f is the frequency of
occurrence of the word-type, and c is a constant, dependent on the corpus” (Wyllys, 1981, p. 1). Using
Zipf’s law, one can determine words of less value such as “a” “the” or “of” and calculate the frequency of
rarer words, thereby determining a text’s true aboutness.2
According to Andrew D. Booth (who revised Zipf’s law in 1967 to include a count of all the words
in a text), J. B. Estroup was the first to state the formula in 1916, however it was Zipf who made it popular
(Diodato, 1994, p. 15).
Citation Analysis
Citation analysis encompasses many quantitative measurements that are crucial to: enhancing
document retrieval; determining aboutness; and revealing relationships between texts, subjects, and
authors. Some of the methods used are: citation age (or obsolescence); co-citation; impact factor;
bibliographic coupling; self citation; clustering; allocitation; and many more.
Scientist Eugene Garfield built off of Bradford’s work in the 1960s by creating a citation index
which showed how works are often cited or referenced by a few; how they tend to cluster around a
5. Jayroe
5
publishing source; and most importantly, that the amount of citations does not necessarily correlate with
the significance of a work to its discipline. He termed this research a citation’s impact factor—a
measurement for determining the quality of a work regardless of how many times it has been cited
(Hertzel, 2003, p. 319, 320).
While there are many specific reasons for employing a citation tool, one purpose of citation
analysis is to gain a better understanding of bibliographic distribution such as: which authors are being
cited and by whom; from what disciplines and organizations; and in what countries. These data can
reveal pertinent information about productivity within a given field. Citation indices such as Institute for
Scientific Information’s Journal Citation Reports, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, the Science
Citation Index, and the Social Sciences Citation Index journals all track and publish such information.
Since citing can be complicated, citation analysis requires serious evaluation and cannot always
be taken at face value. For example, an author may cite another author, but the context could be
negative; the second or third author may not be cited at all, even though they made significant
contributions to an article; or the citation may not be relevant to the work (Raber, 2003, p. 78).
Another tricky area in citation analysis is allocitation, which is the opposite of self-citation [I still
need to elaborate on this]. And then there is the Matthew effect (or biased citations), which identifies the
concept “success-breeds-success or the rich-get-richer phenomenon. In scholarship this occurs when
already well-known individuals receive disproportionately high recognition for their new work compared to
the relatively low recognition received by lesser known colleagues who do comparable work” (Diodato,
1994, p. 100).
Webometrics: Link Analysis3
Commercial search engines and web crawlers have enabled an environment where bibliometrics
can be applied to study information patterns on the World Wide Web. Since the Web contains recorded
information, areas such as hyperlinking can be measured for scholarly communication, much like journal
citation analysis.
With online computations there exists an ability and a benefit in studying social networks and
other collaboration structures.4
Björneborn and Ingwerson draw an analogy (and strongly assert it is only
an analogy) to using inlinks, outlinks, and selflinks, etc. in the Internet much the way citation, co-citation,
6. Jayroe
6
and self-citation are used among journals for gathering analytical data (Thelwall, M., Vaughan, L., &
Björneborn, L., 2005, p. 84).
Conclusion
Whether it is link analysis, citation analysis, applied mathematics, or theoretical interpretation,
bibliometrics contributes to understanding the phenomenon of information by revealing patterns and
structures of data in relation to recorded information and communications. Once these data become
prevalent and analyzed, they can provide better contexts and tools to enhance organizational evaluations,
information retrieval, system design, social behaviors, and human knowledge.
7. Jayroe
7
References:
Bates, M. (1999). The invisible substrate of information science [Electronic version]. Journal of the
American Society for Information Science, 50(12) 1043–1050.
Björneborn, L. & Ingwerson, P. (2004). Toward a basic framework for webometrics [Electronic
version]. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 55(14) 1216–1227.
Chen, Y., & Leimkuhler, F. (1986). A relationship between Lotka’s law, Bradford’s law, and Zipf’s law
[Electronic version]. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 37(5) 307–314.
Diodato, V. (1994). Dictionary of bibliometrics. Binghampton, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc.
Hertzel, D. H. (2003). Bibliometrics History. In Drake, M. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of library and information
science (pp. 288–328). New York, NY: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Raber, D. (2003). The problem of information: An introduction to information science. Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Rousseau, R. (1990) Relations between continuous versions of bibliometric laws [Electronic version].
Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(3) 197–203.
Thelwall, M. & Vaughan, L. (2004). Webometrics: An introduction to the special issue [Electronic version].
Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 55(14) 1213–1215.
Thelwall, M., Vaughan, L., & Björneborn, L. (2005). Webometrics [Electronic version]. Annual Review of
Information Science and Technology, (39)1 81–135
Wyllys, R. (1981). Empirical and theoretical bases of Zipf's law [Electronic version]. Library Trends, 30(1)
53–64.
8. Jayroe
8
Notes
1
Reousseau’s bibliometric timeline. Retrieved September 19, 2008 from http://users.telenet.be
/ronald.rousseau/html/timeline_of_bibliometrics.html
2
“Zipf's law is primarily about the pattern of word occurrences/distribution in a corpus. That authors
tend to use a select core of words time and again. When a given corpus (body of text) is parsed and
ranked by the number of occurrences, and you multiply the rank by the number of occurrences, the result
is an inverse relationship with a constant. I think, having the knowledge of the highest frequency of words
in a corpus is a clue to what that text is about. I would argue, you can use that knowledge to gain an
insight of what that particular piece is all about. However, the initial thesis of the Zipf's law is more of
economics in that the principle of least effort (after Zipf's original book, - Human Behavior and the
Principle of Least-Effort) comes into play” (Dr. Assefa, personal communication, September 22, 2008)
3
Because “Webometrics encompasses all quantitative studies of Web related phenomena” (Thelwall
& Vaughan, 2004, p. 1213), I was only able to touch on link analysis in the interest of time, page limit, and
the fact that I am not a computer scientist ☺.
4
The exception of temporary communications such as online chat rooms goes beyond webometrics
and falls within the field of cybermetrics (Thelwall, M., Vaughan, L., & Björneborn, L., 2005, p. 84).