Universality of citation distributions revisited
Digital Libraries
2011-08-31 v3 Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Physics and Society
Abstract
Radicchi, Fortunato, and Castellano [arXiv:0806.0974, PNAS 105(45), 17268] claim that, apart from a scaling factor, all fields of science are characterized by the same citation distribution. We present a large-scale validation study of this universality-of-citation-distributions claim. Our analysis shows that claiming citation distributions to be universal for all fields of science is not warranted. Although many fields indeed seem to have fairly similar citation distributions, there are quite some exceptions as well. We also briefly discuss the consequences of our findings for the measurement of scientific impact using citation-based bibliometric indicators.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1105.2934,
title = {Universality of citation distributions revisited},
author = {Ludo Waltman and Nees Jan van Eck and Anthony F. J. van Raan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.2934},
year = {2011}
}