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Lotka's inverse square law of scientific productivity: Its methods and statistics
Author(s) -
Bensman Stephen J.,
Smolinsky Lawrence J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23785
Subject(s) - inverse square law , square (algebra) , statistics , productivity , mathematics , plot (graphics) , econometrics , power law , probability and statistics , inverse , mathematical economics , sociology , law , computer science , economics , political science , physics , geometry , classical mechanics , gravitation , macroeconomics
This brief communication analyzes the statistics and methods Lotka used to derive his inverse square law of scientific productivity from the standpoint of modern theory. It finds that he violated the norms of this theory by extremely truncating his data on the right. It also proves that Lotka himself played an important role in establishing the commonly used method of identifying power‐law behavior by the R 2 fit to a regression line on a log‐log plot that modern theory considers unreliable by basing the derivation of his law on this very method.