title: Citation networks in high energy physics.
abstract: The citation network constituted by the SPIRES database is investigated empirically. The probability that a given paper in the SPIRES database has k citations is well described by simple power laws, P(k) proportional to k(-alpha), with alpha approximately 1.2 for k less than 50 citations and alpha approximately 2.3 for 50 or more citations. A consideration of citation distribution by subfield shows that the citation patterns of high energy physics form a remarkably homogeneous network. Further, we utilize the knowledge of the citation distributions to demonstrate the extreme improbability that the citation records of selected individuals and institutions have been obtained by a random draw on the resulting distribution.
authors.affiliation: The Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lautrup
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Jackson