Presents Price's law, which states that half of the literature on a subject will be contributed by the square root of total number of authors publishing in that area, and assesses it against empirical evidence and simulated productivity distributions. The discussion covers this law's relation to Lotka's law and its empirical validity. (Author/CLB)

Discusses the use of the generalized inverse Gaussian-Poisson (GIGP) distribution in bibliometric studies. The main types of size-frequency distributions are described, bibliometric distributions in logarithms are examined; parameter estimation is discussed; and goodness-of-fit tests are considered. Examples of applications are included. (17…

Investigates the Leimkuhler curve and the Gini index from a probabilistic viewpoint for studying the concentration of bibliometric distributions. The importance of the time parameter and the special nature of the "nonproducers" in bibliometric studies are examined, standard models of bibliometric processes are described, and further…

Examines relationships among the parameters of the Zipf size-frequency distribution as well as its sampling properties. Highlights include its importance in bibliometrics, tables for the sampling distribution of the maximal value of a finite Zipf distribution, and an approximation formula for confidence intervals. (Author/LRW)

Illustrates that the Poisson-lognormal model provides good fits to a diverse set of distributions commonly studied in bibliometrics and scientometrics. Topics discussed include applications to the empirical data sets related to the laws of Lotka, Bradford, and Zipf; causal processes that could generate lognormal distributions; and implications for…

Discussion of informetric distributions shows that generalized Leimkuhler functions give proper fits to a large variety of Bradford curves, including those exhibiting a Groos droop or a rising tail. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is used to test goodness of fit, and least-square fits are compared with Egghe's method. (Contains 53 references.) (LRW)

Investigates the relationships between the parameters of the Simon-Yule model and the shapes of three bibliometric distributions: Lotka's Law of Scientific Productivity; Bradford's Law of Bibliometric Scattering; and Zipf's Law of Word Frequency. The results indicate that the probability of a new entry determines the characteristics of all three…

Describes a technique for statistically comparing bibliometric models and illustrates its use with two examples using Lotka's hypothesis of author productivity and one example using library circulation frequencies. Topics discussed include nested statistical models, analysis of variance, regression, log-linear models, and the likelihood ratio…