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Credit Where Credit's Due: Accounting for Co-Authorship in Citation Counts

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  • Tol, Richard S. J.

Abstract

I propose a new method (Pareto weights) to objectively attribute citations to co-authors. Previous methods either profess ignorance about the seniority of co-authors (egalitarian weights) or are based in an ad hoc way on the order of authors (rank weights). Pareto weights are based on the respective citation records of the co-authors. Pareto weights are proportional to the probability of observing the number of citations obtained. Assuming a Pareto distribution, such weights can be computed with a simple, closed-form equation but require a few iterations and data on a scholar, her co-authors, and her co-authors' co-authors. The use of Pareto weights is illustrated with a group of prominent economists. In this case, Pareto weights are very different from rank weights. Pareto weights are more similar to egalitarian weights but can deviate up to a quarter in either direction (for reasons that are intuitive).

Suggested Citation

  • Tol, Richard S. J., 2011. "Credit Where Credit's Due: Accounting for Co-Authorship in Citation Counts," Papers WP387, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp387
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    Cited by:

    1. Eloy López-Meneses & Esteban Vázquez-Cano & Mariana-Daniela González-Zamar & Emilio Abad-Segura, 2020. "Socioeconomic Effects in Cyberbullying: Global Research Trends in the Educational Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-31, June.
    2. Anne-Wil Harzing & Satu Alakangas & David Adams, 2014. "hIa: an individual annual h-index to accommodate disciplinary and career length differences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(3), pages 811-821, June.
    3. M. P. Rozing & T. N. Leeuwen & P. H. Reitsma & F. R. Rosendaal & N. A. Aziz, 2020. "Freeloading in biomedical research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(1), pages 47-55, January.
    4. Du Jian & Tang Xiaoli, 2013. "Perceptions of author order versus contribution among researchers with different professional ranks and the potential of harmonic counts for encouraging ethical co-authorship practices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 277-295, July.
    5. Wang, Jiang-Pan & Guo, Qiang & Zhou, Lei & Liu, Jian-Guo, 2019. "Dynamic credit allocation for researchers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 520(C), pages 208-216.
    6. Karpov, Alexander, 2014. "Equal weights coauthorship sharing and the Shapley value are equivalent," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 71-76.
    7. William H. Walters & Esther Isabelle Wilder, 2015. "Worldwide contributors to the literature of library and information science: top authors, 2007–2012," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(1), pages 301-327, April.
    8. Rahman, Mohammad Tariqur & Regenstein, Joe Mac & Kassim, Noor Lide Abu & Haque, Nazmul, 2017. "The need to quantify authors’ relative intellectual contributions in a multi-author paper," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 275-281.
    9. Chakresh Kumar Singh & Demival Vasques Filho & Shivakumar Jolad & Dion R. J. O’Neale, 2020. "Evolution of interdependent co-authorship and citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 385-404, October.
    10. Hayat D. Bedru & Chen Zhang & Feng Xie & Shuo Yu & Iftikhar Hussain, 2023. "CLARA: citation and similarity-based author ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(2), pages 1091-1117, February.
    11. Jia Zheng & Zhiyun Zhao & Xu Zhang & Mu-hsuan Huang & Dar-zen Chen, 2014. "Influences of counting methods on country rankings: a perspective from patent analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 2087-2102, March.
    12. Rok Blagus & Brane L. Leskošek & Janez Stare, 2015. "Comparison of bibliometric measures for assessing relative importance of researchers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1743-1762, December.
    13. James C. Ryan, 2016. "A validation of the individual annual h-index (hIa): application of the hIa to a qualitatively and quantitatively different sample," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(1), pages 577-590, October.
    14. Christoph Steinbrüchel, 2019. "A citation index for principal investigators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(1), pages 305-320, January.
    15. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    16. Sangwal, Keshra, 2014. "Distributions of citations of papers of individual authors publishing in different scientific disciplines: Application of Langmuir-type function," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 972-984.
    17. John P A Ioannidis & Kevin Boyack & Paul F Wouters, 2016. "Citation Metrics: A Primer on How (Not) to Normalize," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-7, September.
    18. Persson, Rasmus A.X., 2017. "Bibliometric author evaluation through linear regression on the coauthor network," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 299-306.
    19. Levitt, Jonathan M. & Thelwall, Mike, 2013. "Alphabetization and the skewing of first authorship towards last names early in the alphabet," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 575-582.

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