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Abstract

This thesis is mainly concerned with the dual fundaments of informetrics. After an intuitive introductory chapter, we study, in a broad informetric context, general information production processes (IPP) (both discrete and continuous ones) and duality principles (between the sources and the items) in them in an exact and formalistic way. Classical informetrics evolves from this study as an example of a purely dual situation. The general duality technique is also able to recover new informetric laws (including a modelling of the Groos droop) that are easy to fit in practice.

We present also parameter relations and classifications of some informetric laws, using only exact mathematical techniques. The most interesting features here are : the study of the group-free version of Bradford's law, the generalised Leimkuhler law and the place of Zipf's (or Pareto's) law in this context. Also the derivation of some formulae for some parameters, appearing in the group- dependent version of Bradford's law, is non-trivial and very useful in the sequel : they are e.g. basic tools in the fitting of the "nuclear" part of the Leimkuhler graph, even if a Groos droop is apparent, a result that has nice applications. Also the generalised Lotka and Leimkuhler functions are fitted.

The thesis is rounded off by a summary of the results.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Computer Science School of Science & Technology > School of Science & Technology Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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