1. A method in a computer system for adjusting an author authority measure of a distinguished author on a topic for a current period that is preceded by earlier periods, comprising the steps of: identifying articles posted by the distinguished author on the topic during the current and earlier periods; identifying stakeholder authors that cited or posted articles on the topic during the current or earlier periods; for each identified stakeholder author, determining in the computer system whether the stakeholder author cites during the current period an identified article posted by the distinguished author; adjusting in the computing system the author authority measure of the distinguished author on the topic based at least upon whether the stakeholder author cites during the current period an identified article posted by the distinguished author and whether the distinguished author published an article during the earlier period; before adjusting the author authority measure for the current period, initializing the author authority measure for the current period based at least upon the author authority measure for the latest earlier period; and if the distinguished author has published on the topic during the current period, adjusting the author authority measure to reflect an increase in authority; wherein adjusting the author authority measure of the distinguished author on the topic based at least upon whether the stakeholder cites during the current period an identified article posted by the distinguished author for each author identified as a stakeholder includes increasing the author's authority measure if the stakeholder cites during the current period an identified article and decreasing the author's authority measure if the stakeholder does not cite during the current period the identified article.