New book on Lotkaian Informetrics

[Leo Egghe]

POWER LAWS IN THE INFORMATION PRODUCTION PROCESS: LOTKAIAN INFORMETRICS

Leo Egghe

This book describes informetric results from the point of view of Lotkaian
size-frequency functions, i.e. functions that are decreasing power laws.
Explanations and examples of this model are given showing that it is the
most important regularity amongst other possible models. This theory is then
developed in the framework of IPPs (Information Production Processes) hereby
also indicating its relation with e.g. the law of Zipf.

Applications are given in the following fields: three-dimensional
informetrics (positive reinforcement and Type/Token-Taken informetrics),
concentration theory (including the description of Lorenz curves and
concentration measures in Lotkaian informetrics), fractal complexity theory
(Lotkaian informetrics as self-similar fractals), Lotkaian informetrics in
which items can have multiple sources (where fractional size-frequency
functions are constructed), the theory of first-citation distributions and
the N-fold Cartesian product of IPPs (describing frequency functions for
N-grams and N-word phrases). In the Appendix, methods are given to determine
the parameters in the law of Lotka, based on a set of discrete data.

The book explains numerous informetric regularities, only based on a
decreasing power law as size-frequency function, i.e. Lotka's law. It
revives the historical formulation of Alfred Lotka of 1926 and shows the
power of this power law, both in classical aspects of informetrics
(libraries, bibliographies) as well as in "new" applications such as social
networks (citation or collaboration networks and the Internet).

This book is available from Elsevier, Oxford (UK). ISBN : 0120887533. See
the announcement below.

www.elsevier.com/locate/isbn/0120887533