Citation Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract

Citation analysis, one form of bibliometrics, is a useful tool for identifying the characteristics of a discipline's literature. Variables commonly studied in a social science analysis often are gender, institutional affiliation, productivity ranking, obsolescence, and format. More uncommon areas are subdisciplinarity and rapidly emerging discrete research fields. Humanities disciplines have not been adequately examined, possibly because research behavior and disciplinary acculturation are not as formalized as in the sciences and social sciences. This selective annotated bibliography includes studies exclusively devoted to humanities or the social science disciplines which are located in journal articles, theses, and dissertations, as well as studies appearing in proceedings, book chapters, and monographs. Excluded are studies analyzing rnathematical or statistical procedures focusing on the procedure and not on the discipline.

Arts and humanities literature: Bibliometric characteristics of contributions by Turkish authors

“…They found that: "a large part of the publications deal with nationally oriented topics rather than with 'cosmopolitan' topics as in the natural and life sciences; frequent use is made of national language(s) rather than English; an important part of the publication occurs in local outlets rather than in internationally refereed journals; journals are less important than in natural and life sciences; coverage of journals in ISI's Citation Indices is unsatisfactory" (Nederhof et al, 1989, p. 241-42). Hérubel and Buchanan (1994) published a selective and annotated bibliography on citation studies in the humanities and social sciences which covers journal articles, theses, proceedings, book chapters and monographs.…”

Characteristics of la literatura: A Reference Study of Spanish and Latin American Literature

“…4 Herubel and Buchanan highlighted in 1994 both the controversy of bibliometrics applied to the humanities and the opportunities for inquiry into scholarly communication in the humanities that it provides. 5 Although several recent studies have begun to shed light on the overall patterns within the humanities, much remains to be studied. Kellsey and Knievel, authors of two recent citation studies, have offered meaningful comparisons of certain disciplines within the humanities, but have also proclaimed that more studies of individual disciplines are needed to construct a more complete portrait of patterns of scholarly communication within the humanities.…”

The Core Literature of the Historians of Venice

“…(Leydesdorff et al, 2011). In the early decades of bibliometrics, the humanities have been the object of general descriptive citation studies (Hérubel, 1994). More recently, we can find some examples of mapping attempts at a general scale or at the scale of a single discipline or field, which we consider here only if they directly or tangentially discuss history.…”