The uncitedness factor of a journal is its fraction of uncited articles. Given a set of journals (e.g. in a field) we can determine the rank-order distribution of these uncitedness factors. Hereby we use the Central Limit Theorem which is valid for uncitedness factors since it are fractions, hence averages. A similar result was proved earlier for the impact factors of a set of journals. Here we combine the two rank-order distributions, hereby eliminating the rank, yielding the functional relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor. It is proved that the decreasing relation has an S-shape: first convex, then concave and that the inflection point is in the point (μ′, μ) where μ is the average of the impact factors and μ′ is the average of the uncitedness factors.
[1]
Thed N. van Leeuwen,et al.
Characteristics of journal impact factors: The effects of uncitedness and citation distribution on the understanding of journal impact factors
,
2005,
Scientometrics.
[2]
Leo Egghe,et al.
Mathematical derivation of the impact factor distribution
,
2009,
J. Informetrics.
[3]
Leo Egghe,et al.
The mathematical relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor
,
2008,
Scientometrics.
[4]
Germinal Cocho,et al.
On the behavior of journal impact factor rank-order distribution
,
2006,
J. Informetrics.