Fractional counts for authorship attribution: a numerical study

Abstract

Responding to Leimkuhler's call for more computer experimentation in informetrics, this numerical study aims to illustrate observed appearances of fractional counts graphs. For instance, assuming a Lotka distribution for articles per author, it shows that for fields in which the single-author article dominates, a maximum value will always occur at one. However, in fields where the multiauthored article dominates, this maximum may be smaller than one.