Objective knowledge: an evolutionary approach

Previous studies in the sociology of science have relied on measures of production and citations which have failed to take account of multiple authorship. This study indicates that these previous (...

Production and Citation Measures in the Sociology of Science: The Problem of Multiple Authorship:

There were 48 sets of author productivity data tested against Lotka's Law of xnmiddot;y = c. Overwhelming conformity to the law was found. However, only seven data sets fitted the inverse square law. For future tests, representative coverage and good sampling techniques should be adhered to in data compilation. A method is suggested to compute the values of n and c from the data. © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An empirical examination of Lotka's Law

An experiment to verify the satisfaction of Lotka's law, with the papers published in the area of computer science, is reported. It is seen that the estimates of this law deviate considerably from the observations. Need for further experiments to verify Lotka's law in the area of applied sciences and engineering is emphasized.

Lotka's Law and Computer Science Literature

Le nombre rarissime d'ouvrages en langue francaise traitant de la bibliometrie est deconcertant. Pourtant cette discipline met a disposition des methodes d'analyse des savoirs scientifiques et des savoir-faire techniques sans equivalent. Le materiau de base de la bibliometrie, l'information bibliographique et de facon plus large l'information textuelle, en fait un outil de choix pour la connaissance de l'environnement d'une entreprise ou d'un organisme. L'application de methodes statistiques et d'analyses de donnees specifiques aux traitements des grands volumes d'information textuelle permet l'elaboration d'instruments d'aide a la decision. Les resultats de telles analyses bibliometriques offrent aux decideurs de nouveaux elements de reflexions jusqu'alors insoupconnes. Cette ma\ⁱtrise des donnees scientifiques et techniques offre alors un avantage concurrentiel indeniable. Cet ouvrage est concu pour proposer des reponses a toutes personnes s'interrogeant sur les fondements de la bibliometrie et les resultats que l'on peut en attendre. Il retrace les divers concepts, methodes, ecoles de pensees et leurs evolutions jusqu'aux dernieres approches appliquees aux besoins industriels. Il est redige de facon accessible aux non-inities, presentant avec une grande objectivite et une grande clarte l'ensemble des travaux et des techniques bibliometriques. La bibliometrie a tout d'abord ete utilisee pour des besoins en bibliotheconomie. Dans un second temps, des sociologues americains ont trouve dans les techniques bibliometriques des outils pertinents pour l'etude des phenomenes sociologiques lies a la communaute scientifique. Les resultats de ces travaux ont ete par la suite devies de leur objectif initial pour etre consideres par les instances dirigeantes comme des indicateurs d'evaluation de la recherche publique. Les travaux en bibliometrie se sont alors orientes vers l'elaboration de macro-indicateurs pour des evaluations de la recherche et des techniques a l'echelle internationale. De nos jours, les derniers axes de recherche en bibliometrie se penchent vers une exploitation rationnelle de l'information pour repondre a des finalites de veille scientifique, technique, technologique ou concurrentielle. Un tel ouvrage devrait constituer un document de choix pour tous les specialistes de la veille et de l'information scientifique, technique et technologique. Le bench marking, l'analyse concurrentielle, le besoin d'innover mettent en jeu un aspect informationnel important. La bibliometrie apporte dans ce domaine une organisation et un classement des informations facilitant cette demarche indispensable a l'evolution des entreprises et des organismes. Offrir au lecteur une vision claire de cette discipline et de ses applications est l'objectif central de cet ouvrage.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01579948/document

La bibliométrie et ses techniques

The study identifies 621 authors who contributed 1,423 periodical articles and monograph publications to the geographical literature on Nigeria between 1901 and 1970. Publications/author relationship shows a perfect Bradford distribution comprising fifty‐three core authors having each six publications or more and among them contributing 38 per cent of all items. The significance of these results for retrospective bibliographical searches and their methodological implications for documentation studies in general are suggested and briefly discussed.

The productivity of geographical authors: a case study from nigeria

World periodical literature output in geography from 1970 to 1973 and the output concerning the USA, British Isles, France, and Germany for the same period are presented in three sets of Bradford‐Zipf bibliographs, while the verbal formulation of the law is translated into seven tables based on the same data. Results suggest that the convolution of correlated and uncorrelated Bradford distributions yields another Bradford distribution and that data conforming with the verbal formulation of Bradford's law do not automatically conform with the linear ideal of a Bradford bibliograph and vice versa.

The bradford distribution theory: the compounding of bradford periodical literatures in geography

Four measures of 'information consciousness' were identified. and the extent to which federal civil servants in Nigeria related to these measures was determmed. The conclusion was that public polic...

Information utilization by policy-makers in Nigeria, Part I: Assessing degrees of information consciousness:

our questionnaire, the generally positive attitude of respondents, and their readiness to complete the only open-ended question where most considered information crucial to the formulation of meaningful public policy in Nigeria. Availability and timeliness of information were considered the most critical in the provision of information services to policy-makers; relevance and repackaging aspects were rated relatively low. A large majority of respondents preferred to have maximum information support at the planning stage of a theoretically sequential four-stage decision-making task. Generally, the policy-makers themselves tended to agree that Nigerian policymakers suffer from either inadequate or unavailable training to recognise information as a vital component in the process of policy analysis and the lack of a tradition of integrating information analysis into policy analysis. The ministry of respondents variable was the most consistently associated with the variables analysed.

Wilson O. Aiyepeku

Papers

The productivity of geographical authors: a case study from nigeria

The bradford distribution theory: the compounding of bradford periodical literatures in geography

Information utilization by policy-makers in Nigeria, Part I: Assessing degrees of information consciousness:

Information utilization by policy-makers in Nigeria, Part IV: Critical factors in the utilization of information

The Languages and Format of Geographical Literature; a Comparative Study