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The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 73 No. 4 1991

Patterns of Research Output and Author Concentration in the Economics Literature

Raymond A K Cox; Kee H. Chung

Abstract

This study finds that a strong bibliometric regularity exists in the publication pattern in the economics literature; the number of authors publishing n papers is approximately 1/n(superscript "c") of those publishing one paper. The economics literature conforms very well to the model with c = 1.84 if data are taken from a large collection of journals. When applied to individual journals, the result shows that values of c range from 2.04 to 3.11. This paper also reports the degree of author concentration among leading economics journals. Finally, this study finds that the graduates of three graduate programs account for more than half of the top 100 authors, indicates strong institutional dominance in the production of the most prolific authors.

DOI
10.2307/2109417
Volume
73
Issue
4
Pages
740
Sources
openalex crossref

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