This analysis of Zipf's law uses an index for the sequence of observed values of the variables in a Zipf-type relationship. Three important properties relating rank, count, and frequency are identified, shapes of Zipf-type curves are described, and parameters of the Mandelbrot-Zipf law are discussed. (Author/LRW)

This article offers comments and clarifications of Egghe's paper, which dealt with information production processes (IPP) and the Gini index. Topics addressed include the length of the Lorenz curve as a concentration measure, the discrete duality operator, and a Bradford-Leimkuhler distribution. (10 references) (LRW)

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)

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)

Discusses the interdependencies between parameter estimation and properties of probabilistic models, such as dependency assumptions, binary vs. nonbinary features, and estimation sample selection. An optimum estimation for binary features applicable to information retrieval is defined, a method for computing this estimation using empirical data is…

Argues that a major difficulty in using Lotka's law in information science arises from the misuse of goodness of fit tests in parameter estimation. Three approaches for studying Lotka's law are presented: an index approach, a time series approach, and a generating mechanism incorporating these two influential variables to derive an equilibrium…

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…

Summarizes the experimental evidence that indicates that text indexing systems based on the assignment of appropriately weighted single terms produce retrieval results superior to those obtained with more elaborate text representations, and provides baseline single term indexing models with which more elaborate content analysis procedures can be…

Examines how informetric characteristics of information retrieval (IR) system databases can be used to help system designers decide what type of file structures would provide the best performance. The development of appropriate models describing database contents is highlighted in this first part of a two-part study. (30 references) (LRW)

This second report on a two-part study on the application of informetrics to information retrieval (IR) system design used models of database contents in a factorial simulation study at the University of Western Ontario. The study explored whether different file structures were better suited for different informetric environments. (32 references)…