ABS:Lafouge, A new explanation of the negative binomial law..

[Gretchen Whitney]

TITLE:          A new explanation of the negative binomial law and the
                Poisson law with regard to library journal circulation
data (Article,
                English)
AUTHOR:         Lafouge, T; Guinet, E
SOURCE:         JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SCIENCE 25 (1). 1999. p.89-93
                BOWKER-SAUR LTD, E GRINSTEAD

SEARCH TERM(S):  CJ SCIENTOMETRICS


ABSTRACT:       This paper presents a mathematical model using
probability in order to explain the case of library circulation data. In
particular, we model the distribution of use of the articles according
to
their distribution in scientific journals. We have already undertaken
similar work with a geometrical law [6]. The 'no use' of articles is an
important aspect of the question of data now. When the weight of 'no
use'
became important, we obtained a result which appears quite surprising:
the distribution of used articles is a geometrical distribution too.
What
follows is an investigation of whether the model of Poisson and negative
binomial distributions are valid.

AUTHOR ADDRESS: T Lafouge, Univ Lyon 1, Recodoc, Bat 721,43 Blvd 11
                Novembre, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France


Copyright (C) 1999 by the Institute for Scientific Information, Inc.
Reprinted with permission. Please visit their website at www.isinet.com