Influence of human behavior and the principle of least effort on library and information science research

•Zipf's 1949 book focusing on principle of least effort is not cited in LIS articles until 1958.•Zipf's 1949 book has a growing influence on LIS research.•Zipf's concept of “Zipf's law” has had the largest influence.•“Principle of least effort” is the second most cited concept.•Information behavior researchers focus on concepts relating to principle of least effort.

This study identified the influence of the main concepts contained in Zipf's classic 1949 book entitled Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort (HBPLE) on library and information science (LIS) research. The study analyzed LIS articles published between 1949 and 2013 that cited HBPLE. The results showed that HBPLE has a growing influence on LIS research. Of the 17 cited concepts that were identified, the concept of “Zipf's law” was cited most (64.8%), followed by “the principle of least effort” (24.5%). Although the concept of “the principle of least effort,” the focus of HBPLE, was not most frequently observed, an increasing trend was evident regarding the influence of this concept. The concept of “the principle of least effort” has been cited mainly by researchers of information behavior and served to support the citing authors’ claims. By contrast, the concept of “Zipf's law” received the most attention from bibliometrics research and was used mainly for comparisons with other informetrics laws or research results.