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Structure and dynamics of scientific networks. Part II: The new Zipf's law, the clusters of co-citations and the model of the descriptor presence

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Abstract

Here, the quantitative theory of translation is shown to be of great utility in describing scientific networks. In fact, we deduce a new Zipf's Law for the descriptors of a set of documents, based on the concepts of centres of interest and of irreversible parallel translations. This new law can be generalized to other phenomena, such as the distribution of the sizes of cocitation clusters. Finally, we have established the model, for descriptor presence in a network, which closely fits the values recorded.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departmento de Biblioteconomía y Documentación, Facultad de Biblioteconomía y Documentación, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Cartuja, 18071, Granada, (Spain)

    R. Ruiz-Baños & E. Jiménez-Contreras

  2. Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, 18071, Granada, (Spain)

    R. Bailón-Moreno

  3. Laboratoire de Psychologie-Education-Cognition Développement (LabEcd), Université de Nantes, B.P. 1025, 44036, Nantes Cedex, (France)

    J. -P. Courtial

Authors
  1. R. Ruiz-Baños
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  2. R. Bailón-Moreno
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  3. E. Jiménez-Contreras
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  4. J. -P. Courtial
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Ruiz-Baños, R., Bailón-Moreno, R., Jiménez-Contreras, E. et al. Structure and dynamics of scientific networks. Part II: The new Zipf's law, the clusters of co-citations and the model of the descriptor presence. Scientometrics 44, 235–265 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02457382

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02457382

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