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Zipf's law and the diversity of biology newsgroups

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Kot

    (University of Washington)

  • Emily Silverman

    (University of Michigan)

  • Celeste A. Berg

    (University of Washington)

Abstract

Usenet newsgroups provide a popular means of scientific communication. We demonstrate striking order in the diversity of biology newsgroups: Submissions to newsgroups obey a form of Zipf's law, a simple power law for the frequency of posts as a function of the rank, by posting, of contributors. We show that a simple stochastic process, due to Günther et al. (1992, 1996), Levitin and Schapiro (1993), and Schapiro (1994), accounts for this pattern and reproduces many of the properties of newsgroups. This model successfully predicts the relative contribution from each poster in terms of the size, the number of posters and total posts, of the newsgroup.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Kot & Emily Silverman & Celeste A. Berg, 2003. "Zipf's law and the diversity of biology newsgroups," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(2), pages 247-257, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:56:y:2003:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1021971212438
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1021971212438
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Okuyama, K & Takayasu, M & Takayasu, H, 1999. "Zipf's law in income distribution of companies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 125-131.
    2. Larry N. Osborne, 1998. "Topic development in USENET newsgroups," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 49(11), pages 1010-1016.
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