Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27658296›Full record

ArticlePloS one

Beyond Zipf's Law: The Lavalette Rank Function and Its Properties.

Oscar Fontanelli, Pedro Miramontes, Yaning Yang, Germinal Cocho, Wentian Li

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Oscar FontanelliDepartamento de Matemáticas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF, México.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2381-7035
Pedro MiramontesDepartamento de Matemáticas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF, México.
Yaning YangDepartment of Statistics and Finance, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Germinal CochoInstituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF, México.
Wentian LiThe Robert S. Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States of America.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although Zipf's law is widespread in natural and social data, one often encounters situations where one or both ends of the ranked data deviate from the power-law function. Previously we proposed the Beta rank function to improve the fitting of data which does not follow a perfect Zipf's law. Here we show that when the two parameters in the Beta rank function have the same value, the Lavalette rank function, the probability density function can be derived analytically. We also show both computationally and analytically that Lavalette distribution is approximately equal, though not identical, to the lognormal distribution. We illustrate the utility of Lavalette rank function in several datasets. We also address three analysis issues on the statistical testing of Lavalette fitting function, comparison between Zipf's law and lognormal distribution through Lavalette function, and comparison between lognormal distribution and Lavalette distribution.

Identifiers

PMID27658296
PMCPMC5033250

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.