@article {52439,
	title = {The Law of Limited Excellence: Publication Productivity of Israel Prize Laureates in the Life and Exact Sciences},
	journal = {Scientometrics},
	volume = {113},
	year = {2017},
	pages = {299-311},
	abstract = {<section id="Abs1" lang="en" tabindex="-1"><p dir="ltr" id="Par1">The present paper extends Lotka{\textquoteright}s theorem{\textemdash}which we rename as {\textquotedblleft}the law of limited excellence{\textquotedblright}{\textemdash}while empirically modelling the scientific productivity of 46 Israel Prize laureates in the life and exact sciences{\textemdash}a group best described as {\textquoteleft}Star Scientists{\textquoteright}. By focusing on this highly selective group we expose unequal scientific productivity even amongst Israel{\textquoteright}s most prolific scientists. Specifically, we test the invariance of Lotka{\textquoteright}s law by focusing attention on the extreme tail of publication distributions while empirically exploring the non-linearity of its seemingly {\textquotedblleft}flat{\textquotedblright} tail. By exposing the rarity of excellence even in this extreme end of publication productivity we extend the generality of Lotka{\textquoteright}s theorem and expose that{\textemdash}like a fractal{\textemdash}the tail of excellence behaves as the entire distribution. We end this empirical contribution by suggesting a few implications for research and policy.</p></section>},
	url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-017-2465-0},
	author = {Gad Yair and Nofar Gueta and Nitza Davidovich}
}
