Abstract
Simon's stochastic model is extended to take both ‘selective’ and ‘random’ factors in human behaviors into consideration. The resulting distribution function is of ‘non-steadystate’ type and approaches the Poisson distribution at the random limit while the Yule (or Zipf) distribution at the selective limit. A comparison of the theoretical distribution with an observed one for classification items indexed in a bibliorgraphic database is made. The results give some insights into statistical features of a class in which the total number of elements is fixed.
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Onodera, N. A frequency distribution function derived from a stochastic model considering human behaviors and its comparison with an empirical bibliometric distribution. Scientometrics 14, 143–159 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020248
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020248
Keywords
- Distribution Function
- Frequency Distribution
- Stochastic Model
- Human Behavior
- Statistical Feature