Most reported power laws lack statistical support and mechanistic backing

[utopkara]

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6069/665.summary

[freesciencenow]

Paywalls for scientific research are evil.

Full text here: http://209.20.67.195/misc/powerlaws.pdf

(See profile for why I do what I do.)

[nkurz]

Here's a 2007 article on the same topic for those like me without the ability to get past the Science paywall:

"So You Think You Have a Power Law — Well Isn't That Special?"

http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/491.html

[dreeves]

See also: Ode to Power Laws

http://messymatters.com/powerlaws

[jaipilot747]

Is there a non-paywall version somewhere?

[utopkara → jaipilot747]

My apologies for this. I get the magazine in the mail, I didn't realize the full-text link would hit the paywall.