Citation and impact factor distributions of scientific journals published in individual countries     

Keshra Sangwal 《Journal of Informetrics》2013,7(2):487-504

The distributions of citations L, two- (IF2) and five-year impact factors (IF5), and citation half-lives λ of journals published in different selected countries are analyzed using Langmuir-type relation: y_n = y₀ {1 ? αKn/(1 + Kn)}, where y_n denotes L_n, IF2_n or IF5_n of n-ranked journal, y₀ is the value of y_n when journal rank n = 0, α is an empirical effectiveness parameter, and K is the Langmuir constant. It was found that: (1) the general features of the distribution of L_n, IF2_n or IF5_n of the journals published in different individual countries are similar to the results obtained before by the author from the analysis of the citation distribution data of papers of individual authors (K. Sangwal, Journal of Informetrics 7 (2013) 36–49), (2) in contrast to the theoretically expected value of the effectiveness parameter α = 1, the calculated values of α > 1 for journals published in different countries, (3) the trends of the distribution of cited half-lives λ_n of journals differ from those of L_n, IF2_n and IF5_n data for different countries, and show one, two or three linear regions, the longest linear regions with low slopes are observed in the case of countries publishing relatively high number of journals, and (4) the product of the Langmuir constant K and the number N of journals for the processes of citations and two- and five-year impact factors of journals published in different countries is constant for a process. The results suggest that: (1) the values of α > 1 are associated with a process that retards the generation of items (i.e. citations or impact factors), the difference (α ? 1) being related to the dissemination of contents of the journals published by a country, and (2) the constancy of KN is related to the publication potential of a country.  相似文献   

Growth dynamics of citations of cumulative papers of individual authors according to progressive nucleation mechanism: Concept of citation acceleration     

Keshra Sangwal 《Information processing & management》2013

Using data generated by progressive nucleation mechanism on the cumulative fraction of citations of individual papers published successively by a hypothetical author, an expression for the time dependence of the cumulative number L_sum(t) of citations of progressively published papers is proposed. It was found that, for all nonzero values of constant publication rate ΔN, the cumulative citations L_sum(t) of the cumulative N papers published by an author in his/her entire publication career spanning over T years may be represented in distinct regions: (1) in the region 0 < t < Θ₀ (where Θ₀ ≈ T/3), L_sum(t) slowly increases proportionally to the square of the citation time t, and (2) in the region t > Θ₀, L_sum(t) approaches a constant L_sum(max) at T. In the former region, the time dependence of L_sum(t) of an author is associated with three parameters, viz. the citability parameter λ₀, the publication rate ΔN and his/her publication career t. Based on the predicted dependence of L_sum(t) on t, a useful scientometric age-independent measure, defined as citation acceleration a = L_sum(t)/t², is suggested to analyze and compare the scientific activities of different authors. Confrontation of the time dependence of cumulative number L_sum(t) of citations of papers with the theoretical equation reveals one or more citation periods during the publication careers of different authors.  相似文献   

Comparison of different mathematical functions for the analysis of citation distribution of papers of individual authors     

Keshra Sangwal 《Journal of Informetrics》2013,7(1):36-49

The citation distribution of papers of selected individual authors was analyzed using five mathematical functions: power-law, stretched exponential, logarithmic, binomial and Langmuir-type. The former two functions have previously been proposed in the literature whereas the remaining three are novel and are derived following the concepts of growth kinetics of crystals in the presence of additives which act as inhibitors of growth. Analysis of the data of citation distribution of papers of the authors revealed that the value of the goodness-of-the-fit parameter R² was the highest for the empirical binomial relation, it was high and comparable for stretched exponential and Langmuir-type functions, relatively low for power law but it was the lowest for the logarithmic function. In the Langmuir-type function a parameter K, defined as Langmuir constant, characterizing the citation behavior of the authors has been identified. Based on the Langmuir-type function an expression for cumulative citations L relating the extrapolated value of citations l₀ corresponding to rank n = 0 for an author and his/her constant K and the number N of paper receiving citation l ≥ 1 is also proposed.  相似文献