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Benford’s Law and articles of scientific journals: comparison of JCR® and Scopus data

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandre Donizeti Alves

    (National Institute for Space Research, INPE)

  • Horacio Hideki Yanasse

    (National Institute for Space Research, INPE
    Federal University of São Paulo, UNIFESP)

  • Nei Yoshihiro Soma

    (Aeronautic Institute of Technology, ITA)

Abstract

Benford’s Law is a logarithmic probability distribution function used to predict the distribution of the first significant digits in numerical data. This paper presents the results of a study of the distribution of the first significant digits of the number of articles published of journals indexed in the JCR® Sciences and Social Sciences Editions from 2007 to 2011. The data of these journals were also analyzed by the country of origin and the journal’s category. Results considering the number of articles published informed by Scopus are also presented. Comparing the results we observe that there is a significant difference in the data informed in the two databases.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandre Donizeti Alves & Horacio Hideki Yanasse & Nei Yoshihiro Soma, 2014. "Benford’s Law and articles of scientific journals: comparison of JCR® and Scopus data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 173-184, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:98:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1030-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1030-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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