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Full and Fractional Counting in Bibliometric Networks

In their study entitled "Constructing bibliometric networks: A comparison between full and fractional counting," Perianes-Rodriguez, Waltman, & van Eck (2016; henceforth abbreviated as PWvE) provide arguments for the use of fractional counting at the network level as different from the level of publications. Whereas fractional counting in the latter case divides the credit among co-authors (countries, institutions, etc.), fractional counting at the network level can normalize the relative weights of links and thereby clarify the structures in the network. PWvE, however, propose a counting scheme for fractional counting that is one among other possible ones. Alternative schemes proposed by Batagelj and Cerinšek (2013) and Park, Yoon, & Leydesdorff (2016; henceforth abbreviated as PYL) are discussed in an appendix. However, our approach is not correctly identified as identical to their Equation A3. Here below, we distinguish three approaches analytically; routines for applying these approaches to bibliometric data are also provided.