Lotka's Law: A Problem in Its Interpretation and Application

D. Price has conjectured that Lotka's Law, an approximation to the observed distribution of scientific productivity, implies that the N of "good" scientists grows in proportion to the square root of the total N of scientists. The mathematical basis of this claim is examined, showing t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social studies of science 1976-05, Vol.6 (2), p.269-276
Main Authors: Allison, Paul D., Derek de Solla Price, Griffith, Belver C., Moravcsik, Michael J., Stewart, John A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authorship attribution
Distribution/Distributions
Integers
Law/Laws (see also Legal, Legislation)
Lotkas law
Notes and Letters
Production/Productivity/ Producer/ Producers
Productivity
Scientific/Scientism/ Scienticity/ Scientization
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Summary:D. Price has conjectured that Lotka's Law, an approximation to the observed distribution of scientific productivity, implies that the N of "good" scientists grows in proportion to the square root of the total N of scientists. The mathematical basis of this claim is examined, showing that the conjecture follows if certain arbitrary assumptions are introduced. 21 Formulas, Appendix. AA.
ISSN:0306-3127
1460-3659
DOI:10.1177/030631277600600205