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Defining a core: Theoretical observations on the Egghe-Rousseau proposal

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Abstract

In a recent paper Egghe & Rousseau (2002) have readdressed the problem of defining the “core” of a subject's literature by focussing on the productivity of the contributing sources as measured by their influence on an overall concentration value. Here we generalise Egghe & Rousseau's empirical approach, based upon the Gini index, to a more theoretical setting. This allows a simple visualisation of the geometry of the procedure and a complete analysis in certain classic cases. We conclude that, without additional empirical support, the approach does not appear to offer real improvement on more established and intuitively appealing schemes.

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Correspondence to Quentin L. Burrell.

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Burrell, Q.L. Defining a core: Theoretical observations on the Egghe-Rousseau proposal. Scientometrics 57, 75–92 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023623603913

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