nep-sog 2017-12-03 papers

on Sociology of Economics

Issue of 2017‒12‒03
one paper chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Axventure AB

Measuring Influence in Science: Standing on the Shoulders of Which Giants? By Antonin Macé

Measuring Influence in Science: Standing on the Shoulders of Which Giants?

By:	Antonin Macé (Aix-Marseille Univ. (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS, EHESS and Centrale Marseille)
Abstract:	I study the measurement of the influence of scientists based on bibliographic data. I propose a new measure that accounts for indirect influence and allows to compare scientists across different fields of science. By contrast, common measures of influence that “count citations”, such as the h-index, are unable to satisfy either of these two properties. I use the axiomatic method in two opposite ways: to highlight the two limitations of citation- counting schemes and their independence, and to carefully justify the assumptions made in the construction of the proposed measure.
Keywords:	intellectual influence, networks, comparability across fields, axiomatic method
JEL:	C43 D85 A11 A12
Date:	2017–11
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1743&r=sog

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