Biobibliometric portrait of the astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort

Abstract

Jan Hendrik Oort is recognized as one of the greatest astronomers of the 20^th century. His 225 publications that appeared during 1922-1992 are analyzed. Most of the papers of the scientist (N= 170) are non-collaborative. Oort’s first paper was published in 1922 at the age of 23. The period 1957-1961, when Oort was 58-62 years old, was his most productive period (nearly 5 papers per year). From the period of 7^th to 13^th quinquennium (age 53-87) he produced nearly 4 to 5 papers per year. In the byline of authors his status ranged from first to third and ninth. Oort’s research team comprised of 67 collaborators. C. A. Muller and G.W. Rougoor were his leading collaborators. Most of his papers were published in journals, mostly emanating from Netherlands (N=71), USA (N=55) and UK (27) etc. The publication concentration is 2.27 and publication density 16.16. The most frequent keywords are Galaxy(ies) (N=23), Galactic System (N=17) and Structure (N=17). Finally, it is seen that the data set does not follow Bradford law.