On the nationality balance of authors and references in selected MIS journals

✍ Scribed by Reima Suomi

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 744 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-7206
• DOI: 10.1016/0378-7206(93)90031-n

✦ Synopsis

Citation analysis is an established

technique in literature analysis. It can be used to reveal citation patterns and thus results stemming from the analysis, including co-citation patterns and groupings of researchers, even reveal paradigmatic schools within a certain field. In this article, twelve major MIS journals -six European and six American -are studied to find out whether there are any differences in author selection and referencing patterns. It was discovered that the American MIS community is much more self-sustaining than the European one, which relies heavily on work by American authors. This points either to the superiority of the American MIS community, or the under-appreciation of foreign research, or possibly both. On the European side, the result might be interpreted as a sign of low-quality research, lack of selfesteem and pride, or again both. Clear differences between the editorial policy of the journals can be discerned: some journals accept the American hegemony; some try to maintain a balance between contributions from different countries; and some favour European research.