A basic indicator for relative contributions and a remarkable difference between a ratio of averages and an average of ratios
Abstract
Egghe, L., & Rousseau, R. (2014). A basic indicator for relative contributions and a remarkable difference between a ratio of averages and an average of ratios. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, Vol.19, no. 1: 17-22.
This article has been inspired by the activity index and problems in its proper understanding. It studies a basic relative contribution index which is placed in the context of countries’ publication contributions. Two versions are proposed: one being an average of ratios (AoR) and the other one a ratio of averages (RoA). A Lotkaian-Zipfian framework is used to model the two versions of the proposed indicator. A remarkable difference between the two approaches (RoA vs. AoR) is found when determining the fraction of units (countries) that have a value larger than one. This observation contributes to the understanding of the differences between these two approaches.
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