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Testing Bottom-Up Models of Complex Citation Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mark A. Bedau
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Abstract

The robust behavior of the patent citation network is a complex target of recent bottom-up models in science. This paper investigates the purpose and testing of three especially simple bottom-up models of the citation count distribution observed in the patent citation network. The complex causal webs in the models generate weakly emergent patterns of behavior, and this explains both the need for empirical observation of computer simulations of the models and the epistemic harmlessness of the resulting epistemic opacity.

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Type
Complex Systems
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 81 , Issue 5 , December 2014 , pp. 1131 - 1143
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Thanks to Paul Humphreys, John Huss, Emily Parke, and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

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