{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T11:17:10Z","timestamp":1778584630517,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":79,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,17]],"date-time":"2017-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1505606400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/http\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Asso for Info Science &amp; Tech"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Benford's law is an empirical observation, first reported by Simon Newcomb in 1881 and then independently by Frank Benford in 1938: the first significant digits of numbers in large data are often distributed according to a logarithmically decreasing function. Being contrary to intuition, the law was forgotten as a mere curious observation. However, in the last two decades relevant literature has grown exponentially\u2014an evolution typical of \u201cSleeping Beauties\u201d (SBs) publications that go unnoticed (sleep) for a long time and then suddenly become the center of attention (are awakened). Thus, in the present study, we show that the two papers, Newcomb () and Benford (), Newcomb (, <jats:italic>American Journal of Mathematics, 4<\/jats:italic>, 39\u201340) and Benford (1938, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 78, 551\u2013572) papers are clearly SBs. The former was in a deep sleep for 110 years, whereas the latter was in a deep sleep for a comparatively lesser period of 31 years up to 1968, and in a state of less deep sleep for another 27 years, up to 1995. Both SBs were awakened in the year 1995 by Hill (, <jats:italic>Statistical Science, 10<\/jats:italic>, 354\u2013363). In so doing, we show that the waking prince (Hill, ) is more often quoted than the SB whom he kissed\u2014in this Benford's law case, wondering whether this is a general effect\u2014to be usefully studied.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.23845","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,18]],"date-time":"2017-09-18T10:48:42Z","timestamp":1505731722000},"page":"349-358","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Benford's law: A \u201csleeping beauty\u201d sleeping in the dirty pages of logarithmic tables"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"69","author":[{"given":"Tariq Ahmad","family":"Mir","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nuclear Research Laboratory, Astrophysical Sciences Division Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Srinagar 190 006 Jammu and Kashmir India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marcel","family":"Ausloos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"GRAPES\u2014Group of Researchers for Applications of Physics in Economy and Sociology, rue de la Belle Jardini\u00e8re 483 B\u20104031 Angleur Li\u00e8ge Belgium"},{"name":"School of Business, University of Leicester, University Road Leicester LE1 7RH United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_9_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physa.2014.10.041"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.134.3479.596"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_4_1","unstructured":"Beebe N.H.F.(2016).A bibliography of publications about Benford's law Heap's law and Zipf's law. 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