B - Global Citation Patterns of Open Access Communication Studies Journals:Pushing Beyond the Social Science Citation Index

Poor N. D. Pushing Beyond the Social Science Citation Index.
International Journal of Communication 2009; (3):853-879.
http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/view/568

A study carried out using the statistical technique of factor analysis, principal component analysis and clustering, that examines “2,776 citations from 305 articles …. collected from a multinational sample of 17 open access communication journals … published over three years” (articles were gathered from 2006, 2007, and 2008). The question of connectivity and citations between open access journals and mainstream open access journals as measure of “the state of health of a discipline”, lack of citation of foreign publications due to the domination of American authors and of the English language on the overall spectrum of scientific publications together with a criticisms regarding the insufficient inclusion of foreign languages works by the ISI. In addition, subject themes of publications and their relation with data skew, revealing convergence and divergence within a field through citation analysis and more specific issues are dealt with in this paper. As the author states: “If we wish to study global linkages between communication studies journals, we must push beyond the Social Science Citation Index”.