Informetric models for citation frequency data: an empirical investigation

This paper tries to answer to the question “Which is the best model for representing the citation frequency curve?”. We consider 131 practical cases of physicists who were applicants for a full professorship in the specific area of Condensed Matter Physics, and we estimate a set of four possible different types of distribution for size-frequency data. The most remarkable result is that the well-known Lotkaian model is not the best fitting among all we have considered. From our data we conclude that the geometric distribution can provide a valid alternative to more traditional models.