Global and Local Knowledge in Citation Network Formation
Author(s)
Evans, T
Goldberg, S
Type
Dataset
Abstract
Talk
presented at NetSci-X, Wrocław, 12th January 2016.Models of the citation
distribution of academic papers have a long history (Price, 1965). One aim is
to illustrate if certain simple processes can explain important features. In
this paper we focus on the fact that the distribution of citations for papers
of a similar age scales primarily with the average number of citations (Radicchi, Fortunato,
& Castellano 2008, Evans, Hopkins
& Kaube, 2012), with the shape otherwise largely invariant. In particular
the width of such distributions (as measured by the s parameter of a lognormal fit to reasonably well cited papers) shows no
temporal evolution. Simple multiplicative processes or basic models such as the
Price model (Price 1965) give dramatically different results, typically the
distributions become narrower over time.
We found that to get a
reasonable agreement our model had to incorporate three key aspects: local
searches of the network (these generate preferential attachment), such local
searches had to start from recent papers, and finally some knowledge of the
global set of papers was needed. from recent papers, plus global access to
papers, we needed.
To check our results we used data
from the citation network of the hep-th section of the arXiv repository (KDD
cup 2003) as a benchmark. Our three-parameter model was able to produce an
acceptable fit to the hep-th data over 11 different years (see figure).
We find the best fits for our
model to our data is when around 70% to 80% of papers cited are ‘subsidiary
papers’, papers found from local searches through the bibliographies of other
papers. Interestingly similar results have been seen by Simkin and Roychowdhury
(2005) derived from an analysis of mistakes in bibliographic entries. In our
terminology these would be citations to subsidiary papers so both sets of
results are consistent. Further support for this result comes from the
transitive reduction analysis of Clough et al. (2015).
We conclude that the citation
patterns we see are based on around 25% of papers found from some global source
come from reflect a mixture of local searches from papers found through some
global information but favouring recent papers, with the remainder then found
by local searches.
presented at NetSci-X, Wrocław, 12th January 2016.Models of the citation
distribution of academic papers have a long history (Price, 1965). One aim is
to illustrate if certain simple processes can explain important features. In
this paper we focus on the fact that the distribution of citations for papers
of a similar age scales primarily with the average number of citations (Radicchi, Fortunato,
& Castellano 2008, Evans, Hopkins
& Kaube, 2012), with the shape otherwise largely invariant. In particular
the width of such distributions (as measured by the s parameter of a lognormal fit to reasonably well cited papers) shows no
temporal evolution. Simple multiplicative processes or basic models such as the
Price model (Price 1965) give dramatically different results, typically the
distributions become narrower over time.
We found that to get a
reasonable agreement our model had to incorporate three key aspects: local
searches of the network (these generate preferential attachment), such local
searches had to start from recent papers, and finally some knowledge of the
global set of papers was needed. from recent papers, plus global access to
papers, we needed.
To check our results we used data
from the citation network of the hep-th section of the arXiv repository (KDD
cup 2003) as a benchmark. Our three-parameter model was able to produce an
acceptable fit to the hep-th data over 11 different years (see figure).
We find the best fits for our
model to our data is when around 70% to 80% of papers cited are ‘subsidiary
papers’, papers found from local searches through the bibliographies of other
papers. Interestingly similar results have been seen by Simkin and Roychowdhury
(2005) derived from an analysis of mistakes in bibliographic entries. In our
terminology these would be citations to subsidiary papers so both sets of
results are consistent. Further support for this result comes from the
transitive reduction analysis of Clough et al. (2015).
We conclude that the citation
patterns we see are based on around 25% of papers found from some global source
come from reflect a mixture of local searches from papers found through some
global information but favouring recent papers, with the remainder then found
by local searches.
Date Issued
2016-01-08
Citation
2016
Subjects
Citation network
bibliometrics
directed acyclic graphs
Digital Humanities
Library and Information Studies
Informetrics
Statistical Theory
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Notes
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1452953 URL: http://www.issi2015.org/en/Proceedings-of-ISSI-2015.html