Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: We analyze a database comprising the impact factor (citations per recent items published) of scientific journals for a 13-year period (1992–2004). We find that i) the distribution of impact factors follows asymptotic power law behavior, ii) the distribution of annual logarithmic growth rates has an exponential form, and iii) the width of this distribution decays with the impact factor as a power law with exponent β ≃ 0.22. The results ii) and iii) are surprising similar to those observed in the growth dynamics of organizations with complex internal structure suggesting the existence of common mechanisms underlying the dynamics of these systems. We propose a general model for such systems, an extension of the simplest model for firm growth, and compare their predictions with our empirical results.
Source: Europhysics Letters (EPL)
Authors: S Picoli, R. S Mendes, L. C Malacarne, E. K Lenzi
Institution: Universidade Estadual de Maringá
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1998768647