Read Before You Cite!
M. V. Simkin, Vwani Roychowdhury
Abstract
We report a method for estimating what percentage of people who cited a paper had actually read it. The method is based on a stochastic modeling of the citation process that explains empirical studies of misprint distributions in citations (which we show follows a Zipf law). Our estimate is that only about 20% of citers read the original.
Topics & Concepts
PopularityCitationComputer scienceSubject (documents)Reading (process)Zipf's lawPoint (geometry)Scale (ratio)Test (biology)Scope (computer science)Information retrievalPsychologyStatisticsMathematicsLinguisticsWorld Wide WebPhilosophySocial psychologyProgramming languageBiologyQuantum mechanicsGeometryPhysicsPaleontologyComplex Network Analysis TechniquesAdvanced Text Analysis TechniquesOpinion Dynamics and Social Influence