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Price distribution. An exact formulation of Price's “square root law”

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Abstract

An exact probabilistic formulation of the “square root law” conjectured byPrice is given and a probability distribution satisfying this law is defined, for which the namePrice distribution is suggested. Properties of thePrice distribution are discussed, including its relationship with the laws ofLotka andZipf. No empirical support of applicability ofPrice distribution as a model for publication productivity could be found.

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Glänzel, W., Schubert, A. Price distribution. An exact formulation of Price's “square root law”. Scientometrics 7, 211–219 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02017147

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