A simulation study to investigate the accuracy of approximating averages of ratios using ratios of averages

For a number of researchers a number of publications for each author is simulated using the zeta distribution and then for each publication a number of citations per publication simulated. Bootstrap confidence intervals indicate that the difference between the average of ratios and the ratio of averages are not significant. It was found that the log–logistic distribution which is a general form for the ratio of two correlated Pareto random variables, give a good fit to the estimated ratios.