2000 Volume 42 Issue 2 Pages 75-78
Lotka's law of scientific productivity is a bibliometric example : the number of authors against the number of contributions made by the authors was plotted on a logarithmic scale. The points were closely scattered around a straight line having a slope of-2. The purpose of this study was to apply information technology to real-world data and to quantify the extent of the bibliometric regularity that exists in the literature of dental science. We have analyzed the productivity index of authors (PI) in a scientific journal (Journal of American Dental Association). Details of a total of 4, 088 papers published between 1966 and 1995 were extracted electronically from MEDLINE. The total number of authors was 5, 589, responsible for 8, 569 authorships. Only 0.8 % of the authors presented a PI >= 1 (large producers), and 78.1 % a PI = 0 (occasional authors). The number of authors publishing N papers was 1/N2.64 of those publishing one paper. The result suggested that repeated publications in the Journal were more difficult than those predicted by Lotka (1 / N 2). (J. Oral Sci. 42, 75-78, 2000)
