Abstract
The paper examines the qualitative as well as quantitative indicators for the assessment of the scientific publication activities of 32 countries, with special attention to the Zipf-Pareto distribution of those indicators. Also discussed is the linear relationship between the number of first authors of scientific papers in a given country and the number of papers it produced. Based on these discussions, a comprehensive indicator combining the merits of quantitative and qualitative indicators is suggested. The ranking of the 32 countries by this indicator is found to follow also Zipf-Pareto distribution.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
T. Braun, W. Glänzel, A. Schubert,Scientometric Indicators, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1985.
D. de Solla Price,Little Science, Big Science, Columbia University, New York, 1963.
A. Schubert, T. Braun, “World Flash on Basic Research — International Collaboration in the Sciences, 1981–1985”,Scientometrics, 19 (1990), 3–10.
Liang Lihua, Liang Liming, The Price law concerning indicators of scientific publication productivity,Nature Information, (1990), No. 5, (in Chinese).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liming, L., Lihua, L. Scientific publication activities of 32 countries. — Zipf-Pareto distribution. Scientometrics 26, 263–273 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02016219
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02016219