The productivity of top researchers: a semi-nonparametric approach

Abstract

Research productivity distributions exhibit heavy tails because it is common for a few researchers to accumulate the majority of the top publications and their corresponding citations. Measurements of this productivity are very sensitive to the field being analyzed and the distribution used. In particular, distributions such as the lognormal distribution seem to systematically underestimate the productivity of the top researchers. In this article, we propose the use of a (log)semi-nonparametric distribution (log-SNP) that nests the lognormal and captures the heavy tail of the productivity distribution through the introduction of new parameters linked to high-order moments. To compare the results,

Modeling Electricity Price and Quantity Uncertainty: An Application for Hedging with Forward Contracts

“…where f I i T is the probability density function; the CVaR also estimates the lowest profit expected but given that the VaR level has been exceeded. CVaR averages all the net income levels below the VaR; it is computed as in Equation (22).…”

“…[20] uses SNP modeling to describe the co-movements of price and volume in the stock market of the United States (US), and [21] also employs the SNP distribution to model returns in the US and United Kingdom (UK) stock markets. Other works that adopt SNP approaches to expand series beyond the traditional normal or lognormal distributions are those by [22], who measures the productivity of researchers worldwide, and [23], who estimates the size distribution of US firms.…”

Kim są najbardziej produktywni polscy naukowcy? Produktywność badawcza w niezróżnicowanym i niekonkurencyjnym systemie nauki

“…Relatywne znaczenie naukowców mieszczących się po prawej stronie rozkładu produkcji naukowej -nazywanych czasem "gwiazdami nauki" -pozostaje niezmienne w czasie (Agrawal et al 2017: 1). Efekt supergwiazdy odnosi się do rynków ("stosunkowo niewielka liczba ludzi zarabia niebotyczne pieniądze i zdominowuje typ aktywności, w który jest zaangażowana " Rosen 1981: 845), natomiast analogiczny Efekt Mateusza (Cole i Cole 1973;Merton 1968) dotyczy systemu nauki -niewielka liczba naukowców produkuje większość prac, przyciąga ogromne ilości cytowań, zajmuje prestiżowe stanowiska akademickie i odpowiada za kształtowanie tożsamości dyscyplin akademickich (Cortés et al 2016;Serenko et al 2011). Dla Roberta K. Mertona i Sherwina Rosena efektywność determinuje poziom otrzymywanych w nauce nagród.…”

Firm size and economic concentration: An analysis from a lognormal expansion

“…The log-SNP distribution has been applied in diverse fields in which the precision in the measurement of the distribution tails is crucial for accurately capturing the occurrence of extreme values. The studies by Kuhs [ 39 ], Blinnikov and Moessner [ 40 ], Mauleón and Perote [ 41 ], and Cortés et al [ 42 ] have used this distribution in the areas of thermodynamics, astronomy, finance and scientometrics, respectively.…”