Who Talks to Whom? Intra- and Interdisciplinary Communication of Economics Journals

摘要

This paper explored intra- and interdisciplinary communication of economics journals by means of citation analysis. Distinct clusters of cohesive economics journals emerged, based on the extent to which journals cite each other frequently. Some journals are cohesive because they share a content area, like the history journals. The clustering of general interest and theory and method journals illustrates this as well. Journals may also be cohesive because they represent similar paradigms, languages, countries, professional or academic societies, and so forth. The clustering of general interest journals based in the United States, and the close clustering of several general interest non-U.S.-based journals (e.g., Economic Journal, Canadian Journal of Economics, European Economic Review, Oxford Economic Papers) is suggestive. The hierarchical tree captures the various bases for cohesion between economics journals in the citation network. The asymmetric nature of citation relationships between clusters of economics journals was apparent. Only the general interest and the theory and method journals entertain reciprocal citation relationships. All other journals in the network depend heavily on these two journal clusters, which do not noticeably depend on the other journals for their knowledge. This supports Do-reian's (1985) suggestion that center-periphery structures emerge in citation networks when sciences mature. Yet, the strong dependence of the other journals on knowledge from general interest journals and the absence of systematic reciprocation are noteworthy. All journal clusters (including theory and method) rely for at least 50 percent of their knowledge on seven general interest economics journals.