On a heuristic point of view concerning the citation distribution: introducing the Wakeby distrib... more On a heuristic point of view concerning the citation distribution: introducing the Wakeby distribution
The paper proposes a heuristic approach to modeling the cumulative distribution of citations of p... more The paper proposes a heuristic approach to modeling the cumulative distribution of citations of papers in scientific journals by means of the Wakeby distribution. The Markov process of citation leading to the Wakeby distribution is analyzed using the terminal time formalism. The Wakeby distribution is derived in the paper from the simple and general inhomogeneous Choquet-Deny convolution equation for a non-probability measure. We give statistical evidence that the Wakeby distribution is a reasonable approximation of the empirical citation distributions. AMS Subject Classification: 91D30; 91D99.
International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, 2014
The paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of scientific capital... more The paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of scientific capital. Scientific capital is a well-known concept for measuring and assessing the accumulated recognition and the specific scientific power. The concept of scientific capital developed by Bourdieu is used in international social science research to explain a set of scholarly properties and practices. Mathematical modeling is applied as a lens through which the scientific capital is addressed. The principal contribution of this paper is an axiomatic characterization of scientific capital in terms of natural axioms. The application of the axiomatic method to scientific capital reveals novel insights into problem still not covered by mathematical modeling. Proposed model embraces the interrelations between separate sociological variables, providing a unified sociological view of science. Suggested microvariational principle is based upon postulate, which affirms that (under suitable conditions) ...
This paper analyses the problem of scientific quality of physics journals. The main assumption is... more This paper analyses the problem of scientific quality of physics journals. The main assumption is that the quality of a physics journal exists only in reference to other journals. Instead of constructing new indicators of scientific quality, we identify a physical journal with corresponding empirical distribution function of citations. From our relational point of view, the space of physics journals is only a system of differences between empirical distribution functions of citations. Using data from Web of Science Core Collection we consider the space of physics journals and the space of scientific publishers. The first provides an objective basis for the grouping of physics journals on the basis of a whole range of indicators (citation statistics, country, publisher, etc.). The second reveals the "competitors' triangle" of regional publishers, transnational publishers and professional physical societies. These findings have prompted us to advance the hypothesis that ...
The international mobility of skilled personnel, doctorate holders in particular, is the subject ... more The international mobility of skilled personnel, doctorate holders in particular, is the subject of much European research (Auriol 2007, 2010; Jonkers 2008; Musselin 2005). Usually, social shifts themselves are deemphasized in the studies, while the labor market structure (Altbach 1996; D’Agostino et al. 2009; Dhondt 2010; Fox and Mohaparta 2007) or the institutional peculiarities of scientific communities are emphasized (Jonkers 2008; Knight 1995; Saito et al. 2008). But it should be pointed out that mobility is a complex phenomenon which is not limited to a simple relocation from one country or organization to another but it is accompanied by a range of social causes and consequences. First of all, mobility is related to the changes of an individual’s position in a social space, to the rises or falls of social status or “value”, especially in the labor market. The view of “mobility” as of a “social process” along with a “physical relocation” implies the study of an individual’s po...
The paper considers career patterns of researchers and the ways to assess their career achievemen... more The paper considers career patterns of researchers and the ways to assess their career achievements on the academic and non-academic labor markets. Taking into account the approaches developed earlier in the framework of the sociology of science, as well as on the basis of recent empirical studies, the authors propose an original approach to the study of a research career, determine the integral indicator of career achievements and assess the research career rank by means of the transition probabilities. The study is based on the data obtained during a survey among Russian researchers involving 828 respondents employed by organizations in the main prospective science and technology areas (academic and non-academic sectors). We suggest the research career achievement (RCA) indicator as an analytical tool for managing highly qualified research personnel. The use of PageRank method enabled to discern an extremely uneven distribution of the research career achievement value in the surveyed sample of researchers. The analysis revealed the main factors determining academic and non-academic research career patterns. The findings attest that the factors affecting career patterns are closely linked with the recognition that the researcher obtains or expects at three levels: individual – professional community – society as a whole.
On a heuristic point of view concerning the citation distribution: introducing the Wakeby distrib... more On a heuristic point of view concerning the citation distribution: introducing the Wakeby distribution
The paper proposes a heuristic approach to modeling the cumulative distribution of citations of p... more The paper proposes a heuristic approach to modeling the cumulative distribution of citations of papers in scientific journals by means of the Wakeby distribution. The Markov process of citation leading to the Wakeby distribution is analyzed using the terminal time formalism. The Wakeby distribution is derived in the paper from the simple and general inhomogeneous Choquet-Deny convolution equation for a non-probability measure. We give statistical evidence that the Wakeby distribution is a reasonable approximation of the empirical citation distributions. AMS Subject Classification: 91D30; 91D99.
International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, 2014
The paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of scientific capital... more The paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of scientific capital. Scientific capital is a well-known concept for measuring and assessing the accumulated recognition and the specific scientific power. The concept of scientific capital developed by Bourdieu is used in international social science research to explain a set of scholarly properties and practices. Mathematical modeling is applied as a lens through which the scientific capital is addressed. The principal contribution of this paper is an axiomatic characterization of scientific capital in terms of natural axioms. The application of the axiomatic method to scientific capital reveals novel insights into problem still not covered by mathematical modeling. Proposed model embraces the interrelations between separate sociological variables, providing a unified sociological view of science. Suggested microvariational principle is based upon postulate, which affirms that (under suitable conditions) ...
This paper analyses the problem of scientific quality of physics journals. The main assumption is... more This paper analyses the problem of scientific quality of physics journals. The main assumption is that the quality of a physics journal exists only in reference to other journals. Instead of constructing new indicators of scientific quality, we identify a physical journal with corresponding empirical distribution function of citations. From our relational point of view, the space of physics journals is only a system of differences between empirical distribution functions of citations. Using data from Web of Science Core Collection we consider the space of physics journals and the space of scientific publishers. The first provides an objective basis for the grouping of physics journals on the basis of a whole range of indicators (citation statistics, country, publisher, etc.). The second reveals the "competitors' triangle" of regional publishers, transnational publishers and professional physical societies. These findings have prompted us to advance the hypothesis that ...
The international mobility of skilled personnel, doctorate holders in particular, is the subject ... more The international mobility of skilled personnel, doctorate holders in particular, is the subject of much European research (Auriol 2007, 2010; Jonkers 2008; Musselin 2005). Usually, social shifts themselves are deemphasized in the studies, while the labor market structure (Altbach 1996; D’Agostino et al. 2009; Dhondt 2010; Fox and Mohaparta 2007) or the institutional peculiarities of scientific communities are emphasized (Jonkers 2008; Knight 1995; Saito et al. 2008). But it should be pointed out that mobility is a complex phenomenon which is not limited to a simple relocation from one country or organization to another but it is accompanied by a range of social causes and consequences. First of all, mobility is related to the changes of an individual’s position in a social space, to the rises or falls of social status or “value”, especially in the labor market. The view of “mobility” as of a “social process” along with a “physical relocation” implies the study of an individual’s po...
The paper considers career patterns of researchers and the ways to assess their career achievemen... more The paper considers career patterns of researchers and the ways to assess their career achievements on the academic and non-academic labor markets. Taking into account the approaches developed earlier in the framework of the sociology of science, as well as on the basis of recent empirical studies, the authors propose an original approach to the study of a research career, determine the integral indicator of career achievements and assess the research career rank by means of the transition probabilities. The study is based on the data obtained during a survey among Russian researchers involving 828 respondents employed by organizations in the main prospective science and technology areas (academic and non-academic sectors). We suggest the research career achievement (RCA) indicator as an analytical tool for managing highly qualified research personnel. The use of PageRank method enabled to discern an extremely uneven distribution of the research career achievement value in the surveyed sample of researchers. The analysis revealed the main factors determining academic and non-academic research career patterns. The findings attest that the factors affecting career patterns are closely linked with the recognition that the researcher obtains or expects at three levels: individual – professional community – society as a whole.
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Papers by Yurij L Katchanov