Evaluating Author Productivity and Journal Professionalism Using Lotka's Law

Main Article Content

Cecep Ibrahim
Eka Suaib
Asrul Jaya
Moh. Ricky Ramadhan R.
Hera Pebrianti
Muthmainnah Aufaa Hamzah

Abstract

Correction Note: The authorship list for this article has been updated to align with the official institutional research report. By mutual consent, Rahmat Fadhli has been removed from the list, while Asrul Jaya, Moh. Ricky Ramadhan R, Hera Pebrianti, and Muthmainnah Aufaa Hamzah have been added. This administrative correction does not affect the scientific integrity of the study.


Corrected Author List: Cecep Ibrahim, Eka Suaib, Asrul Jaya, Moh. Ricky Ramadhan R, Hera Pebrianti, Muthmainnah Aufaa Hamzah.


For detailed author contributions and the official signed declaration, please refer to the attached Authorship Change Consent Form.


Lotka's law is a bibliometric approach that examines the authorship distribution. The study in Jurnal Ilmu Informasi Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan evaluated authors' productivity and professionalism in three ways using Lotkas' law: straight count, complete count, and proportionate count. This study involved data collection, cleaning, and extraction, as well as data analysis. Data are collected directly from the Jurnal Ilmu Informasi Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan. Data cleaning and extraction are necessary to ensure data veracity. The third stage involves data analysis using straight, complete, and proportionate count processes along with Lotka's law. The results show that the calculation using the straight count follows Lotka's law, whereas the complete count does not. This journal is unprofessional. The use of straight count and complete count will agree with Lotka's proposition if journal management is done properly. Suggestions for further research: Lotka's law technique can be used to assess a journal's professionalism in terms of article publication and dissemination.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Ibrahim, C., Suaib, E., Jaya, A., Ramadhan R., M. R., Pebrianti, H., & Hamzah, M. A. (2026). Evaluating Author Productivity and Journal Professionalism Using Lotka’s Law. BACA: Jurnal Dokumentasi Dan Informasi, 47(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.55981/baca.2026.12791 (Original work published June 30, 2026)
Section
Articles

References

Adnan, M. S. Bin, Hart, A., Hertelendy, A. J., Tin, D., Abelanes, S.-M., Issa, F., & Ciottone, G. R. (2022). Malaysian Disaster Medicine Research: A Bibliographic Study of Publication Trends. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 37(6), 836 – 842. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X22002187

Ahmadi, A. (2019). The use of SINTA (Science and technology index) database to map the development of literature study in Indonesia. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 10(2), 918–923. https://doi.org/https://iaeme.com/Home/article_id/IJMET_10_02_096

Al-Raeei, M. (2023). Analysing of the sustainable development goals in Damascus University during Syrian crisis using the strategy in the university and the bibliometrics data from SciVal. Discover Sustainability, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-023-00140-y

Alshaikh, N. A. (2023). COVID-19 associated coagulopathy: A bibliometric investigation. Heliyon, 9(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16507

Amanullah, A., Rajeswari, S., & Gul, S. (2025). Testing the Applicability of Lotka’s Law, Bradford’s Law, and Zipf’s Law on Gastritis Research Output. DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, 45(4), 386–402. https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.21019

Asatani, K., Oki, S., Momma, T., & Sakata, I. (2023). Quantifying progress in research topics across nations. Scientific Reports, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31452-8

Aytac, S., Tran, C. Y., & Frye, N. (2025). Lotka’s Law of Scientific Productivity Across the Research Disciplines: A Review. Science and Technology Libraries. https://doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2025.2503941

Barbu, L. (2023). Global trends in the scientific research of the health economics: a bibliometric analysis from 1975 to 2022. Health Economics Review, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-023-00446-7

Bisaria, G. (2020). Lotka’s Law and Authorship trends in Library and Information Science: A study based on select journals of India, US and UK. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2020(September), 1–22.

Bolaños, M. C., Espinoza, R. V, Pezoa-Fuentes, P., More, C. C., Opazo, A. B., Galdámez, F. E., Albornoz, C. U., Torres, J. S., Choque, C. L. T., & Campos, R. G. (2022). Bibliometrics of Scientific Productivity on Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 15(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.26822/iejee.2022.277

Caballero, E. G., Villamarín, A. T., & Díaz, C. R. (2023). Big Data and Social Sciences. A comparative review at anthropology, sociology, and social work publications; [Big data y ciencias sociales. Una mirada comparativa a las publicaciones de antropología, sociología y trabajo social]. Gazeta de Antropologia, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.30827/Digibug.79779

Carlos, M. D., Josue, R. D., & Carla, S. C. (2024). Bibliometric studies. An option to develop research in surgery and related disciplines. Revista de Cirugia, 76(2), 147–156. https://doi.org/10.35687/s2452-454920240021890

Chen, L., Du, Z., He, L., & Jiang, N. (2023). Research advances and hotspot analysis of “carbon neutral” in wastewater treatment, based on bibliometrics; [基于文献计量分析的污水处理“碳中和” 研究现状与热点]. Chinese Journal of Applied and Environmental Biology, 29(2), 297 – 305. https://doi.org/10.19675/j.cnki.1006-687x.2022.08025

Cheng, P., Tang, H., Lin, F., & Kong, X. (2023). Bibliometrics of the nexus between food security and carbon emissions: hotspots and trends. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 30(10), 25981 – 25998. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23970-1

Chirinos, J. W. C., Barturén, F. F. R., Nuñez, M. M., & Barrantes, S. I. A. (2023). Bibliometrics of scientific production on teacher emotional intelligence in learning environments; [Bibliometría de la producción científica sobre Inteligencia emocional docente en entornos de aprendizaje]. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 29(2), 471 – 482. https://doi.org/10.31876/rcs.v29i2.39989

Da Silva, S., Perlin, M., Matsushita, R., Santos, A. A. P., Imasato, T., & Borenstein, D. (2018). Lotka’s law for the Brazilian scientific output published in journals. Journal of Information Science, 45(5), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551518801813

Da Silva, S., Perlin, M., Matsushita, R., Santos, A. A. P., Imasato, T., & Borenstein, D. (2019). Lotka’s law for the Brazilian scientific output published in journals. Journal of Information Science, 45(5), 705–709. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551518801813

Desai, N., Veras, L. V, & Gosain, A. (2018). Using bibliometrics to analyze the state of academic productivity in US pediatric surgery training programs. Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 53(6), 1098–1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2018.02.063

Donner, P. (2020). A validation of coauthorship credit models with empirical data from the contributions of phd candidates. Quantitative Science Studies, 1(2), 551–564. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00048

Dželalija, G., & Roić, M. (2023). Bibliometrics on Public Utilities Registration Research. Land, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/land12051097

Egghe, L., Rousseau, R., & Van Hooydonk, G. (2000). Methods for accrediting publications to authors or countries: Consequences for evaluation studies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 51(2), 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(2000)51:2<145::AID-ASI6>3.0.CO;2-9

Fadhli, R., Rahmat, B., Ibrahim, C., & Eka Kurnia, B. (2023). Uncovering patterns of author productivity in educational leadership and management in Indonesia: A bibliometric study using lotka’s law. Record and Library Journal, 9(2), 306–318. https://doi.org/10.20473/rlj.V9-I2.2023.306-318

Fox, E. S., McDonnell, J. M., Wall, J., Darwish, S., Healy, D., & Butler, J. S. (2024). The correlation between altmetric score and traditional measures of article impact for studies published within the Surgeon Journal. Surgeon, 22(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surge.2023.09.005

Hasenay, S., & Ačkar, Đ. (2022). Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Research of Food Industry By-Products in the Period 1976–2021. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(24). https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416910

Ivanović, L., Baaden, P., Jovanović, M., & Ivanović, D. (2025). Correlation between journal metrics-based academic evaluation and researchers’ ethics. Accountability in Research, 32(4), 459–487. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2023.2295415

Kalcioglu, M. T., Ileri, Y., Ozdamar, O. I., Yilmaz, U., & Tekin, M. (2018). Evaluation of the academic productivity of the top 100 worldwide physicians in the field of otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery using the Google Scholar h-index as the bibliometrics ranking system. Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 132(12), 1097–1101. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022215118002190

Kim, E., & Atteraya, M. (2024). Analyzing the Degree of Changes in Indexed Journals: The Case of SJR Database. Publishing Research Quarterly, 40(2), 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-024-09991-3

Kushairi, N., & Ahmi, A. (2021). Flipped classroom in the second decade of the Millenia: a Bibliometrics analysis with Lotka’s law. Education and Information Technologies, 26(4), 4401–4431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10457-8

Lee, Juhyun, Park, S., & Lee, Junseok. (2023). Citationwalk: Network representation learning with scientific documents. Expert Systems with Applications, 227, 120372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.120372

Lee, Y. (2022). An Extension of the Lindström-Gessel-Viennot Theorem. The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 29(2), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.37236/10913

Li, J., Cossette-Roberge, H., Toffa, D. H., Deacon, C., & Keezer, M. R. (2023). Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP): A bibliometric analysis. Epilepsy Research, 193, 107159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2023.107159

Li, V. (2022). Mapping the health science librarianship research field in 2012 – 2022. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal de l’Association Des Bibliothèques de La Santé Du Canada, 43(3), 93 – 103. https://doi.org/10.29173/jchla29626

Li, X., Wu, L., Yu, L., He, Y., Wang, M., & Mu, Y. (2023). Policy analysis in the field of rare diseases in China: a combined study of content analysis and Bibliometrics analysis. Frontiers in Medicine, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2023.1180550

Liu, D., Yao, Z., Yang, X., Xiong, C., & Nie, Q. (2023). Research Progress and Trend of Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution from Non-Irrigated Farming Based on Bibliometrics. Water, 15(8), 1610. https://doi.org/10.3390/w15081610

López-Muñoz, F., Velázquez-Pérez, L., González Garcés, Y., López-Vázquez, I., Rodríguez Labrada, R., Medrano Montero, J., & Povedano Montero, F. J. (2023). Bibliometrics and network mapping of Cuban international scientific production on ataxias (1993-2020); [Bibliometría y mapeo de redes de la producción científica internacional de Cuba sobre ataxias (1993-2020)]. Revista Cubana de Informacion En Ciencias de La Salud, 34. https://doi.org/http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?pid=S2307-21132023000100016&script=sci_abstract&tlng=en

Lu, H., Zhang, W., Diao, B., Liu, Y., Chen, H., Long, R., & Cai, S. (2023). The progress and trend of pro-environmental behavior research: a bibliometrics-based visualization analysis. Current Psychology, 42(8), 6912 – 6932. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01809-1

Mehta, K. M., Petersen, K. L., Goodman, S., Sørensen, H. T., Bøgsted, M., Olesen, J. D., Burks, S., Shaw, R. E., Hove, J. D., Ousager, J., Milla, C., Andersen, V., Ejskjær, N., Brix-Christensen, V., Ghose, S., Kjær, A., & Chin-Hong, P. V. (2023). The Danish-American Research Exchange (DARE): a cross-sectional study of a binational research education program. BMC Medical Education, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04002-z

Melero-Fuentes, D., Aguilar-Moya, R., Valderrama-Zurían, J.-C., & Gorraiz, J. (2025). Evolution and effect of meeting abstracts in JCR journals. Journal of Informetrics, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2024.101631

Mitrović, I., Mišić, M., & Protić, J. (2023). Exploring high scientific productivity in international co-authorship of a small developing country based on collaboration patterns. Journal of Big Data, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-023-00744-1

Mohammed, A. M., Aziz, F., Mohtar, S. S., Mhamad, S. A., Ahmadu, B., Nasir, M. U., Muhammad, K. Y., & Aziz, M. (2023). A review of research trends on the usage of photocatalysis for wastewater treatment: bibliometric analysis. Sustainable Water Resources Management, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-023-00868-5

Mullins, C. H., Boyd, C. J., & Corey, B. L. (2020). Examining the Correlation Between Altmetric Score and Citations in the General Surgery Literature. Journal of Surgical Research, 248, 159–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2019.11.008

Naheem, K. T., Sivaraman, P., & Saravanan, G. (2019). Application of Lotka’s law in Bell’s palsy (facial paralysis) research output during 2004 - 2018. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2019. https://doi.org/https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2892/

Naqvi, S. H., & Fatima, N. (2017). Authorship patterns in international business literature: Applicability of Lotka’s law. Annals of Library and Information Studies, 64(4), 253–259.

Nuryana, Z., Xu, W., Lu, S., Tasir, Z., & Suyadi, S. (2023). Mapping global research on shadow education: Trends and future agenda. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 12(2), 1105 – 1113. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v12i2.24667

Qua, K., Yu, F., Patel, T., Dave, G., Cornelius, K., & Pelfrey, C. M. (2021). Scholarly productivity evaluation of KL2 scholars using bibliometrics and federal follow-on funding: Cross-institution study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(9). https://doi.org/10.2196/29239

Sahu, A., & Jena, P. (2022). Lotka’s law and author productivity pattern of research in law discipline. Collection and Curation, 41(2), 62–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-04-2021-0012

Sharma, K., Moyer, J., Liggins, C., Garcia-Cazarin, M., Mandal, R. J., Wanke, K. L., & Meissner, H. I. (2023). Impact of National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration Tobacco Research Funding: A Bibliometrics Analyses. Nicotine & Tobacco Research : Official Journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, 25(6), 1082 – 1089. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntad024

Sharma, S., Miller, A. S., Pearson, Z., Harris, A. B., Tran, A., Ahmed, I., Best, M. J., & Srikumaran, U. (2023). Correlation between Altmetric score and traditional bibliometric measures for total shoulder arthroplasty manuscripts. Seminars in Arthroplasty JSES, 33(2), 401–406. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.sart.2023.01.007

Shi, J., Jin, P., & Gu, S. (2019). Research on credit distribution of cooperative papers according to authors’ rank. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. https://doi.org/10.1145/3321408.3326684

Shiah, E., Heiman, A. J., & Ricci, J. A. (2023). Evaluation of the i10-Index in Plastic Surgery Research and its Correlation with Altmetric Attention Scores and Traditional Author Bibliometrics: An Evaluation of a Single Journal. Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, 56(1), 68 – 73. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-1760827

Singh, H., & Jaiswal, B. (2025). Authorship Dynamics and Lotka’s Law Applicability in the Realm of Archaeology. DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, 44(6), 374–383. https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.44.6.20153

Singh, P. K. (2023). Research impact analysis of an institute using Scopus data and its hierarchical order visualization. Quality and Quantity, 57(3), 2859 – 2892. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-022-01504-8

Suprapto, N., Kusnanik, N. W., Iriani, S. S., Wibawa, S. C., Yulianto, B., & Hariyanto, A. (2021). The Comparison of Scimago Institutions Rankings (SIR), Scopus, and SINTA Profile: A Case of The Top Indonesian Institutions. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2021, 1–11. https://doi.org/https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5788/

Thompson, D. F., & Walker, C. K. (2015). A descriptive and historical review of bibliometrics with applications to medical sciences. Pharmacotherapy, 35(6), 551–559. https://doi.org/10.1002/phar.1586

Todeschini, R., & Baccini, A. (2016). Handbook of Bibliometric Indicators: Quantitative Tools for Studying and Evaluating Research. Wiley-VCH.

Tunga, S. K. (2021). Lotka’s Law and Author Productivity in the Economic Literature: A Citation Study. Indian Journal of Information Sources and Services, 11(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.51983/ijiss-2021.11.2.2998

Valizadeh-Haghi, S., Nasibi-Sis, H., Shekofteh, M., & Rahmatizadeh, S. (2022). ResearchGate Metrics’ Behavior and Its Correlation with RG Score and Scopus Indicators A Combination of Bibliometric and Altmetric Analysis of Scholars in Medical Sciences. Information Technology and Libraries, 41(1). https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v41i1.14033

Vivarelli, M. (2023). The role of peer review in the evaluation of research in Italy. Some remarks on the evaluation of PRINs; [Il ruolo della peer review nella valutazione della ricerca in Italia. Alcune considerazioni sulla valutazione dei PRIN]. JLIS.It, 14(1), 121 – 137. https://doi.org/10.36253/jlis.it-500

Wang, F., Jia, C., Wang, X., Liu, J., Xu, S., Liu, Y., & Yang, C. (2019). Exploring all-author tripartite citation networks: A case study of gene editing. Journal of Informetrics, 13(3), 856–873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2019.08.002

Wang, G., Wang, H., & Wang, L. (2023). Research trends in tourism and hospitality from 1991 to 2020: an integrated approach of corpus linguistics and bibliometrics. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 6(2), 509 – 529. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-09-2021-0260

Yanhui, S., Lijuan, W., & Shiji, C. (2022). An exploratory study of the all-author bibliographic coupling analysis: Taking scientometrics for example. Journal of Information Science, 48(6), 767 – 782. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551520981293

Zakaria, W. N. A., Wijaya, A., Al-Rahbi, B., Ahmad, A. H., Zakaria, R., & Othman, Z. (2023). Emerging trends in gene and bipolar disorder research: a bibliometric analysis and network visualisation. Psychiatric Genetics, 33(3), 102 – 112. https://doi.org/10.1097/YPG.0000000000000338

Zhang, Y., Zhang, J., & Qi, L. (2023). Analysis of Hotspots and Trends in Digitalization Research of Chinese Archives Based on Bibliometrics. Sustainability (Switzerland), 15(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097679

Zharova, A., Härdle, W. K., & Lessmann, S. (2023). Data-driven support for policy and decision-making in university research management: A case study from Germany. European Journal of Operational Research, 308(1), 353 – 368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.10.016