Empirical laws and theories of information and software sciences

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573(84)90036-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Information science and software science are empirical sciences: their objects of study are informative texts and prescriptive texts, respectively. The main objective of this paper is to review the achievements of both these sciences in their search for empirical regularities and laws and in the development of theories to explain and account for these regularities.

References (40)

  • C.W. Morris

    Foundations of the theory of signs

    Int. Encyclopedia Unified Sci.

    (1947)
  • N. Rescher

    The Logic of Commands

    (1966)
  • C. Peirce
    (1931–1932)
  • Yu.A. Shreider et al.

    Semantic aspects of information

    Study Committee Research on the Theoretical Basis of Information: Collection of Papers

    (1974)
  • Yu.A. Shreider, Information and metainformation, Nauch.-Tekhn. Inf. 2(4), 3–10 (In...
  • C.G. Hempel

    Fundamentals of Concept Formation in Empirical Science

    (1952)
  • W.S. Torgerson

    Theory and Methods of Scaling

    (1958)
  • H. Woodrow

    The problem of general quantitative laws in psychology

    Psych. Bull.

    (1942)
  • G. Zipf

    Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort

    (1949)
  • S.C. Bradford

    Documentation

    (1950)
  • J. Lotka

    The frequency distribution of scientific productivity

    J. Washington Acad. Sci.

    (1926)
  • R.A. Fairthorne

    Empirical hyperbolic distribution (Bradford-Zipf-Mandelbrot) for bibliometric description and prediction

    J. Documentation

    (1969)
  • B.C. Brookes

    The derivation and application of the Bradford-Zipf distribution

    J. Documentation

    (1968)
  • A.F. Parker-Rhodes et al.

    A theory of word-frequency distribution

    Nature

    (1958)
  • B.C. Brookes

    Bradford's Law and the bibliography of science

    Nature

    (1969)
  • R.F. Skinner

    The distribution of associated words

    Psych. Record

    (1937)
  • P. Zunde et al.

    Indexing consistency and quality

    Am. Docum.

    (1969)
  • B.C. Brookes

    Characteristic profiles of developing information systems

    Int. Forum Inform. Docum.

    (1978)
  • P.F. Cole

    Journal usage versus age of journal

    J. Documentation

    (1963)
  • G.N. Gilbert et al.

    The quantitative study of science: An examination of the literature

    Sci. Studies

    (1974)
  • Cited by (7)

    • Lotka's law and institutional productivity

      1998, Information Processing and Management
    • Foundations of Information Science

      1990, Advances in Computers
    • Type-token theory and bibliometrics

      2016, Theories of Informetrics and Scholarly Communication
    • Informetrics

      1999, Annual Review of Information Science and Technology
    • The Bradford distribution a review of the literature, 1934-1987

      1989, Library and Information Science Research
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text