Mapping the terrain of Journal of Counseling Psychology: A citation network analysis.

Abstract

In this study, we conducted a citation network analysis of the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) to elucidate the scope, evolution, and interconnections of JCP publications as reflected in how authors use (i.e., cite) these publications. We used CitNetExplorer to analyze a network of 4,718 JCP publications and 16,959 citation links. The analysis yielded 19 clusters in JCP's citation network. The most dominant facet of the citation network focused on counseling, counseling process, and counseling outcome. The clusters in this facet shifted from an early focus on perceptions of counselors to continuing examinations of what happens in counseling. Another dominant facet comprised clusters on vocational psychology, shifting from an earlier focus on vocational choice and interest, to career counseling and decision making, to vocational and academic development processes and predictors. These major facets converged toward a continuing cluster focused on methodology and analysis along with race, gender, sexuality, and other diversity scholarship. This suggests that diversity-focused publications in JCP often employ and cite methodological and analytic advances. The results also reveal discontinued areas of scholarship in JCP that are ripe for revisiting and rebuilding in new directions (e.g., anger and social justice activism; clinical judgment and artificial intelligence). The results suggest that a promising next step in the evolution of JCP would be for authors to engage with and cite diversity scholarship as central to "general" domains of JCP scholarship. Public Significance StatementThis study reveals how authors have cited publications in JCP to generate and inform key domains of scholarship on counseling, work, and diversity. The findings also suggest areas that could be revisited and connected to generate new advances (e.g., anger and social justice activism, clinical judgment, and artificial intelligence).

Psychology of Women Quarterly: Citation Network Analysis of Its Landscape and Evolution

“…In this way, the evolution of citation patterns in Cluster 4 reveals that articles on intersectionality in psychology are using (and crediting via citations) articles on gender and educational and occupational experiences and vice versa. This finding, like the finding of a citation cluster in the Journal of Counseling Psychology that combined gender, race, and sexuality research with articles on advanced methods and analysis (Parent et al, 2021), illustrates how articles might have high citation interconnectivity and be clustered together even if their topics of focus differ. Citation network analysis reveals patterns in use of articles, which is different and complementary to a focus on topics in content analysis.…”

“…In this way, citation practices are an enactment of power in academia and an important point of analysis (e.g., Cite Black Women, n.d.). Citation network analyses have been conducted across numerous areas and scholarly journals, including engineering (e.g., Kajikawa & Takeda, 2009), counseling psychology (Parent et al, 2021), medicine (e.g., Shibata et al, 2011), masculinity studies (Parent et al, 2018), and intersectionality scholarship (Moradi et al, 2020).…”

“…Thus, citation network analysis allows us to explore the breadth and evolution of PWQ publications based on citation patterns rather than on what investigators judge publications to be about. For example, a citation network analysis of the Journal of Counseling Psychology (Parent et al, 2021) revealed a cluster that included articles on gender, race, and sexuality (e.g., Black racial identity, heterosexism, and sexual objectification of women) along with key articles on methodological and statistical advances (e.g., testing mediation and moderation, and missing data management). This set of articles would not be combined in a traditional content analysis focused on topic domains, but their convergence in citation network analysis demonstrates that “diversity” publications have evolved at a time when expectations for methodological and analytic sophistication are high and that diversity-focused publications use (and have to demonstrate that they use) these advances.…”

Citation network analysis of minority stress scholarship: Past, present, and potential directions.

“…Considering citation practices as a form of epistemic power that determines what knowledge (e.g., about what populations and topics) is codified and advanced, we view this as an important strength suggesting that the different foci on populations or topics within minority stress scholarship are not siloed and that scholars are integrating ideas and findings across these domains. As citation network analyses of other domains have revealed (e.g., Moradi et al, 2020;Parent et al, 2018Parent et al, , 2021, this is not always the case and large bodies of scholarship often yield some distanced and disconnected domains. Indeed, Cluster 1, which focused on foundational frameworks and reviews, was the dominant cluster and overlapped with nearly all other clusters.…”

“…Citation network analyses have been conducted in numerous fields including counseling psychology (Parent et al, 2021), engineering (e.g., Kajikawa & Takeda, 2009), intersectionality scholarship (Moradi et al, 2020), and masculinity studies (Parent et al, 2018). Citation network analysis is akin to social network analysis (Marion et al, 2003).…”