To What Extent Do Successive Cohorts Adopt Different Publication Patterns? Peer Review, Language Use, and Publication Types in the Social Sciences and Humanities

Abstract

This article presents a cohort analysis to study changes in the publication patterns of scholars working at a social sciences and humanities (SSH) university department or research unit in Flanders, Belgium. Starting from a comprehensive bibliographic database, we analyze the peer review status, publication language, publication type (journal article, book publication, or proceedings), and coverage in Web of Science (WoS) for publications produced between 2000 and 2014. Through a cohort analysis of the authors, a distinction can be made between effects that reflect changes in the characteristics of how researchers of comparable seniority publish (intracohort change) and effects that are due to the disappearance of researchers and/or introduction of new researchers (cohort succession). Our findings indicate that there is a trend across all five cohorts and in both the social sciences and humanities toward peer review, use of English, and publishing in WoS-indexed journals. While we witness clear intracohort changes, cohort succession effects are shown to be much weaker. The oldest cohort appears to maintain a traditional SSH profile, with lower shares of peer-reviewed publications, publications in English, journal articles, and publications indexed in WoS. As for publication types, all cohorts exhibit a slightly declining share of journal articles over time in favor of book publications, particularly in the humanities. The study shows that cohort analysis is a useful instrument to gain better insight into the evolution of publication patterns.

National bibliographic data for studies of social sciences and humanities: towards interoperability

“…Research from the perspective of book publishers is less common. Some work has been done on the consolidation and concentration of the publishing industry, both in international ITM Web of Conferences 33, 02002 (2020) ICTeSSH 2020 https://doi.org/10.1051/itmconf /20203302002 and national contexts [2,11,29,30]. Thus the ABP can be a data source that opens up research opportunities on less explored topics.…”

“…[1] thus setting in motion the field of quantitative studies of science, also known as bibliometrics or scientometrics. Quantitative studies of science, reliant on various quantitative methods, advance knowledge on different aspects of research: for example, on research or publishing activities or their relationship with various micro or macro characteristics [2,3]. Within this knowledge domain, social sciences and humanities (SSH) as research object, occupy an uneasy position.…”

Academic vs. Biological Age in Research on Academic Careers: A Large-scale Study with Implications for Scientifically Developing Systems

“…Furthermore, in a study of age and productivity of Italian National Research Council scientists, Bonaccorsi and Daraio (2003, p. 75) concluded that productivity declines with age and that the average age of researchers is increasing, with severe policy implications for national science systems ("the graying of the academic profession"). Guns, Eykens, and Engels (2019) examined different publication patterns of successive age cohorts at a social sciences and humanities department in Flanders, Belgium, and showed that the oldest cohort appears to maintain the traditional publication pattern focused on book publications, with a useful distinction between intracohort change and cohort succession. Finally, Rørstad and Aksnes (2015) in their study of publication rate by age, gender, and academic position on a large sample of 12,400 Norwegian university professors have shown that academic position is more important for productivity than age and gender.…”

Understanding and Evaluating Research and Scholarly Publishing in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)

“…The editors of scholarly books are mostly established researchers, produce more book chapters and monographs than do other researchers, and are more productive . In an analysis of five cohorts, Guns, Eykens and Engels (2019) showed a continuing trend across all cohorts and in both the SSH towards peer review and use of English. Although there is no trend away from book publications, journal articles are increasingly published in WoS-indexed journals.…”