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Stochastic modeling of citation slips

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Abstract

We present empirical data on frequency and pattern of misprints in citations to twelve highprofile papers. We find that the distribution of misprints, ranked by frequency of their repetition, follows Zipf’s law. We propose a stochastic model of citation process, which explains these findings, and leads to the conclusion that about 70-90% of scientific citations are copied from the lists of references used in other papers.

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Simkin, M., Roychowdhury, V. Stochastic modeling of citation slips. Scientometrics 62, 367–384 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-005-0028-2

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