NDLI: Linking as voting: how the Condorcet jury theorem in political science is relevant to webometrics

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Masterton, George Olsson, Erik J. Angere, Staffan
Copyright Year	2016
Abstract	A webmaster’s decision to link to a webpage can be interpreted as a “vote” for that webpage. But how far does the parallel between linking and voting extend? In this paper, we prove several “linking theorems” showing that link-based ranking tracks importance on the web in the limit as the number of webpages grows, given independence and minimal linking competence. The theorems are similar in spirit to the voting, or jury, theorem famously attributed to the 18th century mathematician Nicolas de Condorcet. We argue that the linking theorems provide a fundamental epistemological justification for link-based ranking on the web, analogous to the justification that Condorcet’s theorems bestow on majority voting as a basic democratic procedure. The analogy extends to the practical limitations facing both kinds of result, in particular due to limited voting/linking independence. However, we argue, referring to the theoretical developments inspired by the jury theorem, that some of the pessimism expressed in the webometrics literature regarding the possibility of a “theory of linking” may be unjustified. The present study connects the two academic disciplines of webometrics in information science and epistemic democracy in political science by showing how they share a common structure. As such, it opens up new possibilities for theoretical cross-fertilization and interdisciplinary transference of concepts and results. In particular, we show how the relatively young field of webometrics can benefit from the extensive and sophisticated literature on the Condorcet jury theorem.
Starting Page	945
Ending Page	966
Page Count	22
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01389130
Journal	Scientometrics
Volume Number	106
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	15882861
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2016-01-25
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Webometrics Condorcet jury theorem Linking Independence Ranking PageRank Information Storage and Retrieval Library Science
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Library and Information Sciences Computer Science Applications

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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