BIBLIOMETRICS
and
BIBLIOMETRIC LAWS
School of Library and Information Science
Devi Ahilya University Indore (MP)
Submitted To:-
Dr. G.H.S. Naidu
HOD, School of LIS
UTD,DAVV , Indore
Submitted By:-
D.P. Kushwah
Roll No.M.Phil-04
DAVV , Indore

Contents
 Introduction to the term “Bibliometrics”
 Origin of the term “Bibliometrics”
 Definitions
 Objectives
 Scope
 Why Bibliometrics
 Applications of Bibliometrics
 Bibliometrics Laws
 Lotka’s Law
 Bradford’s law
 Zipf’s Law
 Conclusion

Introduction to the term "Bibliometrics”
Origin of the term “Bibliometrics”
Biblio + Metrics = Bibliometrics
“Biblio” is originated from Greek word
“Biblion” which means “Book” or “Paper”
“Metrics” is originated from Greek or Latin
word “Metricus” or “Metrikos” which
means the science of Meter or to measure
Continued ….

Continued 1….
 Bibliometrics is a set of methods used to study
or measure texts and information. Citation
analysis and content analysis are commonly
used in Bibliometrics methods. While
Bibliometrics methods are most often used in
the field of library and information science.
 Bibliometrics uses mathematical and statistical
methods to analyse and measure the output of
publications. Modern Bibliometrics has been
largely inspired by Derek de Solla Price and the
seminal work was carried out by him in the
middle of the last century.

Origin Of the term Bibliometrics
The term “Bibliometrics” by Pritchard and
“Scientometrics” by Nalimov and
Mulchenko have been introduced almost
simultaneously in 1969. While Pritchard
explained the term Bibliometrics as "the
application of mathematical and statistical
methods to Bibliographic information of
books and other media of communication”.
Continued ….

Nalimov and Mulchenko defined
Scientometrics as "the application of those
quantitative methods which are dealing
with the analysis of science viewed as an
information process" (Nalimov and
Mulchenko, 1969). According to these
interpretations, Scientometrics is restricted
to the measurement of science
communication, whereas Bibliometrics is
designed to deal with more general
information processes.
Continued 1….

Definitions
According to Potter :- “The Study and
measurement of Publication patterns of all forms
of written communication and their authorship”.
According to Alan Pritchard :- “Studies which
seek to quantify the process of written
communication”.
According to Alvin M. Schrader :- “Scientific
study of recorded discourses”.

Objectives
 Analysis of Information Transfer Process and
Control on.
 To tell about the structure of Knowledge and
its transmission.
 The rendering of reliable statistics.
 The definition of the delimitation of the
subject.
 Understanding of specific reading habits.
 To point out the inherent relevant importance
of Several types of documents in the various
disciplines.

Scope
 Identification of the main journals.
 Ranking of journals.
 Selection magazines.
 Sort of magazines.
 Make known to the mutual influence of
magazines.
 Development and expansion of knowledge in
various fields,
 An institution, contribute to the scientific
progress of the nation or individual,
Continued ….

 Research methodology in making.
 Duties of different themes and readers in
identifying documents.
 Documentation in a specific area to detect
progress.
 The same theme order creating a list of
scientists and information specialists.
 Measuring the usefulness of information
services,
 Formulation of principles for standardization.
Continued 1….

Why Bibliometrics
 To identify which areas are most active and
which are becoming important.
 Identify the influences & “cross fertilizations”.
 Useful to the policy makers who are deciding
the priority areas in a certain research domain.

Applications of Bibliometrics
 To identify research trends and growth of
knowledge.
 To estimate comprehensiveness of secondary
periodicals.
 Library selection, weeding, policies Information
organization Information management.
 To identify users of different subjects.
 To identify authorship and its trends in documents
on various subjects.
 To forecast past, present and future publishing
trends.
 To predict productivity of publishers, individual
authors, organizations and countries.

BIBLIOMETRIC LAWS
Lotka’s Law (1926)
Bradford’s Law (1934)
Zipf’s Law (1935)

Lotka’s Law (1926)
The Frequency Distribution of
Scientific Productivity
“It would be of interest to determine, if
possible, the part which men of different
caliber contribute to the progress of science
considering first simple volume of
production.
Alfred J. Lotka.

Lotka’s law: xn • y = C
Xnœ1/y
xn = c1/y
C=xn y
The total number of authors y in a given subject,
each producing x publications, is inversely
proportional to some exponential function n of x.
Where:
x = number of publications
y = no. of authors credited with x
publications
n = constant (equals 2 for
scientific subjects)
C = constant
inverse square law of scientific productivity

Lotka’s Law
The number of authors making n
contributions to the literature is about
1/n2 of those making one
– 60% of authors make one contribution
– 15% of authors make two contributions
– <7% of authors make three contributions
– <4% of authors make four contributions
– <2.5% of authors make five contributions
– 1.25% of authors make six contributions
– <1% of authors make seven contributions

Lotka’s Law Example :
Out of 1000 authors
– 608 publish 1 article
– 152 publish 2 articles
– 68 publish 3 articles
– 38 publish 4 articles
– 24 publish 5 articles
– 17 publish 6 articles
– 12 publish 7 articles
Not exact prediction but holds true
overall in most fields

Bradford’s Law (1934)
"If scientific journals are arranged in order
of decreasing productivity of articles on a
given subject, they may be divided into a
nucleus of periodicals more particularly
devoted to the subject and several groups
or zones containing the same number of
articles as the nucleus, when the numbers
of periodicals in the nucleus and
succeeding zones will be as n : n2 : n3.
Samual.Climent Bradford

© Tefko Saracevic 19
Bradford's Law of Scattering – zones
3 sources
130 articles
9 sources
130 articles
27 sources
130 articles Garfield hypothesis
nucleus

Bradford’s Law of Scattering
In any field of interest, relevant journals
can be split into three groups
Each group contributes the same number
of relevant articles to citations in the field
# of 1st group journals = k
3 sources = 130 articles
# of 2nd group journals = k*n
9 sources = 130 articles
# of 3rd group journals = k*n2
27 sources = 130 articles

© Tefko Saracevic 21
Bradford's Law of Scattering –
an idealized example
No. of
source journals
1
2
1
2
2
4
10
7
5
5
No. of articles per
source
60
35
30
25
9
8
6
5
4
3
Total no. of articles
60
70
30
50
18
32
60
35
20
15
9
27
130
130
1303

© Tefko Saracevic 22
Zipf’s law(1935) : r • f = c
Rœ1/f
R= c1/f
r • f = c
Where:
r = rank (in terms of frequency)
f = frequency (no. of times the given word
is used in the text)
c = constant for the given text
 For a given text the rank of a word multiplied by the
frequency is a constant
 Works well for high frequency words, not so well
for low – thus a number of modifications
George Kingsley Zipf

Zipf’s Law of term distribution
 In a document of ca. 10,000 words the
most frequently used word is “the” at 950
Times.
 the 2nd most frequently used word is “a”
at 490 Times.
 the 3rd most frequently used term is “in”
at 340 Times.
 the 1000th most frequently used term is
“fruit” at 1 time.

Zipf’s Law of term distribution
Frequency x occurrences = constant
1 x 950 = 950
2 x 490 = 980
3 x 340 = 1020
1000 x 1 = 1000
Constant = 1000 for this document

Conclusion
As conclusion we can say that, Bibliometrics is a major
sub-discipline of quantitative research. This is a tool used by
the library and information science professionals for studying
the communication processes, information flows, and for
better understanding and effective management and
dissemination of information. Bibliometrics techniques are
being used for a variety of purposes like determination of
various scientific indicators, valuation of scientific output,
selection of journals for libraries and even forecasting the
potential of a particular field.
Continued…

Continued 1….
It is effective for, measuring the scattering of
articles on a subject in various periodicals (Bradford),
measuring the productivity of an author based on the
number of published articles. (Lotka), Ranking of words
in a text based on frequency of occurrence of words.
(Zipf), Productivity count of a literature, identifying the
peers, social change and the core journals etc. (Citation
Analysis), Bibliographic control, Preparation of
retrospective bibliography and better Library
Management. Hence We can conclude that, There is an
important role of Bibliometrics and Bibliometrics Laws
in the field of Library and Information Science.

Reference
 Google search-https://www.google.com
 Notes of related subject Teacher Mr. Ritesh Tiwari
 Use of journals.
 Study Materials.
 Sharma,A.K. Research Methodology and Information
Technology.New Delhi : Ess Ess Publication p 162-69
 BROOKES, B.C., Biblio-, sciento-, infor-metrics???
What are we talking about, In: L. Egghe, R. Rousseau
(Eds.), Informetrics 89/90, Elsevier Science Publishers
B.V., 1990, 31-43