The non-Gaussian nature of bibliometric and scientometric distributions: A new approach to interpretation

An attempt has been made to give an answer to the question: Why do most bibliometric and scientometric laws reveal characters of Non-Gaussian distributions, i.e., have unduly long “tails”? We tried to apply the approach of the so-called “Universal Law,” discovered by G. Stankov (1997, 1998). The basic principle we have used here is that of the reciprocity of energy and space. A new “wave concept” of scientific information has been propounded, in which terms the well-known bibliometric and scientometric distributions find a rather satisfactory explanation. One of the made corollaries is that α = 1 is the most reasonable value for the family of Zipf laws, applied to information or social phenomena.