“Lotka's law in the humanities?”
Larry J. Murphy · Journal of the American Society for Information Science · 1973
Abstract It is stressed that Lotka's Law was originally only applicable in physical science, specifically chemistry and physics. The more recent general application of Lotka's Law in non‐physical science, without appropriate new tests of validity, is bemoaned. A recent test in the humanities is discussed, showing that Lotka's Law does apply reasonably in that speciality. A plea is made for more “spot checks” of so called general “Laws,” which were determined using specific subject samples—not only for Lotka's Law, which is used here as an example, but in all such “laws” applied in information science, in general.