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Bibliographic scattering: A generalised source approach

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Abstract

So far all the formulas or equations for the bibliographic scattering have been derived or formulated through item approach. As such, the selection is not randomised and there can not be any empty source. A source approach has been presented here with minimum of assumptions and conditions. An equation of scattering distribution is derived. If there areM sources andN items, the probability or the relative frequency of the sources withith group items is given byW(i) KM −i=C M −i exp(γMM). Suggestions and procedures for experimental verifications have been sketched. Derivations from Bose-Einstein statistics with Gibrat's law1 2 have been discussed and compared.

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Sen, S.K. Bibliographic scattering: A generalised source approach. Scientometrics 17, 197–204 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02026409

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