The 'language preference' in sociology: measures of 'language self-citation', 'relative own-language preference indicator', and 'mutual use of languages

摘要

Although between one-third to one-half of world social sciences research literature is published in languages other than English, studies show very scant use of it by American and English scholars. Almost all studies, however, were conducted from the Anglo-Saxon Perspective, limiting the scope of the study to English-published sources or English-speaking Scientists and research workers. The present study aimed at assessing the scope of the language Preference in a social sciences field, not only among American and British scholars, but among German and French ones as well, using the technique of citation analysis.