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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Small, H., Co-citation in the scientific literature: a new measure of the relationship between two documents.Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 24 (1973) No. July–August, 265–269.
Callon, M., Law, J., Rip, A., Eds.Mapping the dynamics of science and technology: Sociology of science in the real world. London: Mc Millan, 1986.
Callon, M., Courtial, J.P., Laville, F., Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research: the case of polymer chemistry.Scientometrics, 22 (1991), No. 1, 155–205.
Courtial, J.P.,Introduction à la scientométrie. De la bibliométrie à la veille technologique. Paris: Anthropos, 1990.
Latour, B., Woolgar, S.,Laboratory life, London: Sage, 1979.
Latour, B.,Science in action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Van Raan, A.F.J., Fractal geometry of information space as represented by co-citation clustering,Scientometrics, 20 (1990), No. 3, 439–449.
Van Raan, A.F.J., Fractal dimension of co-citations,Nature, 347 (1990), 18 October, 626.
Small, H. Macro-level changes in the structure of co-citations clusters: 1983–1989,Scientometrics, 26 (1993), No. 1, 5–20.
Ruiz-Baños, R.,Ciencimetría de Redes. Análisis de la investigación internacional sobre Arqueología mediante el Método de las Palabras Asociadas (1980–1993) doctoral thesis, Granada, 1997.
Condon, E.U., Statistics of vocabulary.Science, 68 (1928), No. 300, p. 1733.
Zipf, G.K.,Human behaviour and the principle of least effort. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Press, Inc., 1949.
Federowicz, J.E., A zipfian model on automatic bibliographic system: an application to MEDLINE.Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 33 (1982), No. 4, p. 223–232.
Brookes, B.C., Ranking techniques and the empirical log law,Information Processing and Management, 20 (1984), p. 16–37.
Mandelbrot, B.,The Fractal Geometry of Nature, W.H. San Francisco: Freeman and Co., 1982.
Harrison, A.,Fractal in Chemistry, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 23–31.
Egghe, L., Rousseau, R.,Introduction to Informetrics. Quantitative Methods in Library, Documentation and Information Science, Amsterdam, etc. Elsevier, 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
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
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02457382