Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

A Laplace Transfer-Based Citation Model and its Application in Detecting the Obsolescence Characteristics of Articles


Affiliations
1 College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
2 College of Economics and Business Administration, Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, Harbin 150050, China
 

This study describes a Laplace transfer-based citation model proposed for the actual citation process among journals. The actual citation process is a dynamic physical system which includes two continuous processes of ageing and publishing of cited articles. By deducing the Laplace transfer function for these two processes, we have established the input–output function for the actual citation process. Considering the subject of ‘automation and control systems’ as an example, time parameters associated with the ageing process were identified from the input–output function to examine the obsolescence characteristics for the subject. Experimental results show that the ageing time parameter calculated by the Laplace transferbased citation model is a good expression on the obsolescence of the field. The field shows a moderate ageing rate and a shortened obsolescence tendency on the whole. Most of the articles cited annually in this field are articles published 5–10 years ago. There is a monotonic decreasing dependence between the increment of IF and the increment of time parameter T1, although IF always increases regardless of whether the ageing tends to prolong or shorten.

Keywords

Citation Process, Dynamic Physical System, Impact Factor, Journal Articles, Obsolescence.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Arao, L. H., Santos, M. J. V. D. and Guedes, V. L. D., The halflife and obsolescence of the literature science area: a contribution to the understanding the chronology of citations in academic activity. Qual. Quant. Meth. Lib., 2015, 603–610.

  • Avramescu, A., Actuality and obsolescence of scientific literature. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 1979, 30, 296–303.

  • Line, M. B., The ‘half-life’ of periodical literature: apparent and real obsolescence. J. Doc., 1970, 26(1), 46–54.

  • Larivière, Archambault, V. É. and Gingras, Y., Long-term variations in the aging of scientific literature: from exponential growth to steady-state science (1900–2004). J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol., 2008, 59(2), 288–296.

  • Nicholas, D., Huntington, P., Dobrowolski, T., Rowlands, I., Jamali, M., Hamid, R. and Polydoratou, P., Revisiting obsolescence and journal article decay. Inf. Proc. Manag., 2005, 41, 1441–1461.

  • Moed, H. F., Bibliometric measurement of research performance and Price’s theory of differences among the sciences. Scientometrics, 1989, 15(5–6), 473–483.

  • Glänzel, W., Thijs, B. and Chi, P. S., The challenges to expand bibliometric studies from periodical literature to monographic literature with a new data source: The book citation index. Scientometrics, 2016, 109(3), 2165–2179.

  • Alvarado, R. U., Synchronic study of literature obsolescence: the case of Lotka’s Law. Invest. Bibliotecol., 2014, 28(63), 85–113.

  • Onodera, N., Properties of an index of citation durability of an article. J. Informetr., 2016, 10(4), 981–1004.

  • Sotelo–Cruz, N., Atrian-Salazar, M. L. and Trujillo-Lopez, S., Indicators of obsolescence of the medical literature in a Mexican pediatric journal. Gaceta Med. Mexico, 2016, 152(2), 202–207.

  • Wang, M. Y., Li, S. and Chen, G. S., Detecting latent referential articles based on their vitality performance in the latest 2 years. Scientometrics, 2017, 112(3), 1557–1571.

  • Yin, Y. and Wang, D. S., The time dimension of science: connecting the past to the future. J. Informetr., 2017, 11(2), 608–621.

  • Glänzel, W. and Schoepflin, U., A bibliometric study on ageing and reception processes of scientific literature. J. Inf. Sci., 1995, 21(1), 37–53.

  • Glänzel, W. and Schoepflin, U., A bibliometric study of reference literature in the sciences and social sciences. Inf. Process. Manage., 1999, 35(1), 31–44.

  • Glänzel, W., Towards a model for diachronous and synchronous citation analyses. Scientometrics, 2004, 60(3), 511–522.

  • Bouabid, H. and Lariviere, V., The lengthening of papers’ life expectancy: a diachronous analysis. Scientometrics, 2013, 97(3), 695–717.

  • Zhang, L. and Glänzel, W., A citation-based cross disciplinary study on literature aging: part I – the synchronous approach. Scientometrics, 2017, 111(3), 1573–1589.

  • Zhang, L. and Glänzel, W., A citation-based cross disciplinary study on literature aging: part II – diachronous aspects. Scientometrics, 2017, 111(3), 1559–1572.

  • Egghe, L., and Rousseau, R., The influence publication delays on the observed aging distribution of scientific literature. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 2000, 51, 158–165.

  • Yu, G., Yu, D. R. and Rong, Y. H., The mathematical models of the periodical literature publishing process. Inf. Process. Manage., 2000, 36, 401–414.

  • Yu, G., Rong, Y. H. and Li, Y. J., Mathematical model of delay in the secondary literature publishing process. Scientometrics, 2003, 58(3), 773–685.

  • Yu, G., Yu, D. R. and Li, Y. J., The universal expression of periodical average publication delay at steady state. Scientometrics, 2004, 60(2), 121–129.

  • Yu, G. and Li, Y. J., Parameter identification of the observed citation distribution. Scientometrics, 2007, 71(2), 339–348.

  • Ali, S., Aslam, M. and Kazml, S. M. A., Heterogeneous data analysis using a mixture of Laplace models with conjugate priors. Int. J. Syst. Sci., 2014, 45(12), 2619–2636.

  • Kocabas, I., Application of iterated Laplace transformation to tracer transients in heterogeneous porous media. J. Franklin Inst. – Eng. Appl. Math., 2011, 348(7), 1339–1362.

  • Sheng, H., Li., Y. and Chen, Y. Q., Application of numerical inverse Laplace transform algorithms in fractional calculus. J. Franklin Inst. – Eng. Appl. Math., 2011, 348(2), 315–330.

  • Price, D. J. D., Citation measures of hard science, soft science, technology, and nonscience. In Communication among Scientists and Engineers, Heath Lexington, MA, USA, 1970, pp. 3–22.

  • Calabretta, G., Durisin, B. and Ogliengo, M., Uncovering the intellectual structure of research in business ethics: a journey through the history, the classics, and the pillars of journal of business ethics. J. Business Ethics, 2011, 104(4), 499–524.

  • Ho, Y. S., A bibliometric analysis of highly cited articles in materials science. Curr. Sci., 2014, 107(9), 1565–1572.

  • Higham, K. W., Governale, M., Jaffe, A. B. and Zulicke, U., Unraveling the dynamics of growth, aging and inflation for citations to scientific articles from specific research fields. J. Informetr., 2017, 11(4), 1190–1200.


Abstract Views: 242

PDF Views: 83




  • A Laplace Transfer-Based Citation Model and its Application in Detecting the Obsolescence Characteristics of Articles

Abstract Views: 242  |  PDF Views: 83

Authors

Mingyang Wang
College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Dongtian Leng
College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Yang Li
College of Information and Computer Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Xiangrong Zhang
College of Economics and Business Administration, Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, Harbin 150050, China

Abstract


This study describes a Laplace transfer-based citation model proposed for the actual citation process among journals. The actual citation process is a dynamic physical system which includes two continuous processes of ageing and publishing of cited articles. By deducing the Laplace transfer function for these two processes, we have established the input–output function for the actual citation process. Considering the subject of ‘automation and control systems’ as an example, time parameters associated with the ageing process were identified from the input–output function to examine the obsolescence characteristics for the subject. Experimental results show that the ageing time parameter calculated by the Laplace transferbased citation model is a good expression on the obsolescence of the field. The field shows a moderate ageing rate and a shortened obsolescence tendency on the whole. Most of the articles cited annually in this field are articles published 5–10 years ago. There is a monotonic decreasing dependence between the increment of IF and the increment of time parameter T1, although IF always increases regardless of whether the ageing tends to prolong or shorten.

Keywords


Citation Process, Dynamic Physical System, Impact Factor, Journal Articles, Obsolescence.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv116%2Fi10%2F1696-1705