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Journal Citation Studies. 40. Journais-What They Cite I and What Cites Them

Number 37 September 12, 1983

Over the years, we have published a Renaissance. Writers at that time de- number of journal citation studies. fined anthropology in a variety of ways, These studies identify the significant for example, as “a description of the journals in a given field. Recently, we in- body and soul” and “the laws of their vestigated journals in the earth sci- union, ” or as “the history of human na- ences, 1neurosciences,z and arts and hu- ture.”b Physical anthropology has its ori- manities.s In connection with the recent gins in the work of eighteenth-century International Congress on Anthropolo- naturalists. can gy held in Vancouver, we decided to be traced to the compendia of customs study anthropology journals indexed in produced by European social philoso- Sociai Sciences Citation Indexm phers and other scholars during the late (SSC~ ). So we have identified some of eighteenth and early nineteenth centu- the “core” journals in the field and ex- ries. By the late nineteenth century, an- amined how these core journals cite one thropologists had begun to produce in- another. fluential theoretical works? using evohs- According to A.L. Kroeber, editor of tionary theory as a unifying frame of ref- Anthropology Today, anthropology is “a erence. In addition, much work in the science devoted to the study of man, the field was sponsored by museums inter- study of differences and sidarities of all ested in expanding their collections. It aspects of the life of man without limita- was at this point that scientific societies tion in time and space.”d The field has and journals bearing anthropological two major branches. Physical anthro- titles began to appear.b pology examines the ongins of the hu- The oldest anthropology journals in- man species and physical variations dexed in SSC1 and included in this study within it. Cultural anthropology is con- were in fact founded during this era. cerned with human behavior and its “ar- They are B~dragen tot de Taa[-, Land- tifacts”— material objects, social sys- en Volkenkunde (Contn”butions to Lin- tems, religious beliefs, language, etc.s A guistics, Geogmphy, and ), diverse group of disciplines is related to established in Holland in 1853; Bu[letins the general heading of cultural anthro- et M&moires de la Socidt&d ‘Anthropo!o - pology—linguistics, ethnology, ethnog- gie de Paris, first published in 1860; and raphy, , and applied Zeitschnft ftir Ethnologic, founded in anthropology, to name only a few. Germany in 1865. As you can see, an- The term “anthropology” is derived thropology is an old and international from a combination of the Greek an- field. thropos, meaning “man,” and the ubiqui- Table 1 lists the 41 “core” anthropolo- tous logos, denoting, in thk case, “ac- gy journals included in thk study, along count .“5 It first came into use during the with their first dates of publication. The

293 Table I: Core anthropology joumak indexed by Tatste 2: Archaeology joumafs indexed by SSCP SSCP and the year that each began publication. and the year that each began publication.

American Anthropdogkt-1888 Acts Archaeologica-1951 American Ethnologist— 1974 American Antiquity— 1935 American Journal of Physical Anthropology— American Journal of Archaeology-1885 1918 Antiquaries Journal-l 921 A:nual Review of Anthropology— 1972 Antiquity—1927 Anthropologiai Ki$zlem&nyek-Anthropological Archaeology-1948 Communications-1954 Archaeomeo_y-19% AntfxropoIogica-1 955 Ausgrabungen und Funde-1956 Anthropological Linguisticx--l 959 BuUetin Monumental-1834 Anthropological Quarterly-1928 Hesperia-1932 Anthrqxologie-1 890 International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Anthropology ti Education Quarterly—1 970 Underwater Exploration— 1972 Anthropology UCLA— 1%9 Israel Exploration Joumat-1 950 Anthropos— 1906 Joumal of Archaeological Science-1974 Arctic Anthropology-1%2 Journal of Near Eastern Studies— 1884 Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde- Revue Arch&ologique de l’Est et du Centre- 1853 Est—19W Bulletins et M6moires de la Soci&t6 World Archaeology—1%9 d’Antlxropologie de Paris— 186Cl Zeitschrift fur Arc&ologie- 1967 Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology— 1964 Chinese Sociology and Anthropology—1 964 analysis to help identify the most influ- Colfegium Antropologicum-1977 ential journals in their fields. In the case Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry-1977 of new journals, we depend on the judg- Current Anthropology— 1960 Dialectical Anthropology— 1975 ment of our editorial advisory board and Eastern Anthropologist— 1947 of specialists working in the field. Ethnology—1962 As in our other journal citation Ethos—1973 Homme-1%1 studies, we will consider the anthropolo- Homn-1948 gy journals in this study as if they com- Human Organization-1941 prised a single “Macro Journal of An- Journal of Anthropological Research— 1945 Journal of Family History-1976 thropology.” Data were taken from the Journal of Human Evolution— 1974 1982 Journal Citation ReportsB (JCR‘“ ) Journal of Peasant Studies—1973 volume of SSC1 to determine what this Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon—1973 macro journal cited and vice versa. You Journal of the Polynesian Society— 1892 should keep in mind, however, that the Man—1966 SSC1 JCR combines citation data from Man in India-1921 Mankind—1 93 I a!l 1S1 citation indexes—SSC1, Science -1960 Citation Index” (SCW’), and Arts& Hu- Oceania—1930 manities Citation Index ‘M(A&HCY ‘“).9 Social Networks—1 979 In comparison to other fields which Soviet Anthropology and Archeology— 1%2 Zeitsc.hrift fir Ethnologic-186S study aspects of human behavior, such as psychology, anthropology is a rela- list certainly does not include every tively small field. The 41 core anthropol- anthropology journal published today. ogy journals published only 941 articles Nor does it include all of the important in 1982. This represents about two per- journals which publish anthropology re- cent of the 46,729 research articles in- search, including archaeology journals, cluded in the 1982 SSC1 JCR, The core listed separately in Table 2, and multi- journals cited 30,275 references that disciplinary journals. However, we are year, or three percent of the t ,020,377 confident that it does include the signifh references processed in the 1982 SSCI cant anthropology journals. I have pre- JCR. Thus, the average anthropology ar- viously explained how ISF’ selects jour- ticle cited about 32 references in 1982. nals for coverage in our citation Thk is high compared to the 22 cited in indexes.s We rely heavily on citation the average SSCZJCR article.

294 Table 3: The 50 journals most cited by core anthropology journals in 1982. An asterisk indicates a core journal. A = citations received from core journals. B= citations received from all journals. C=scl f-citations. D =ptrcen! cd citn- tions from all journals thaf are core journaf citations (AI B). E= percent of citations from all joummfs that arc self-citations (self-cited rate, C/B). F= wrcent of core citations that are self-citations (C/A), G =. H= immediacy index. 1 = 1982 source items.

A 6 CD E F G M 1

“Amer. J. Phys. Anthropol. 861 t721 506 W.03 29.40 58.77 t.39 .25 122 “Amer. Anthropol. 413 1110 58 37.21 5.23 t4.04 ,79 .22 27 “Cum. Anthropaf, 307 589 145 52.12 24.62 4’7,23 .79 .38 61 Science 306 70.867 — .43 — — 6.81 1.73 988 “Man W 585 48 S2.13 8,21 15.74 1.W .19 27 Nature 246 flo!923 — .22 — — 8.75 2.10 I362 “J. Hum. Evof. 236 376 98 62.77 26.06 41.53 .62 .20 IA “Amer. EthnoL 157 280 60 %.07 2t .43 38.22 1.07 .39 41 Hum. Btof, 15s w 19.23 — – ,67 .15 46 “Ethnology 122 222 21 54.95 9.46 17,21 .50 .12 26 Fofia Prima[of. 106 618 17.15 — — I .NJ .15 $4 “J. AnthropoL Res. 105 211 10 49.76 4.73 9.52 23 “Anthropas 104 194 67 53.61 34.54 64,42 .3s .11 47 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 103 4345 2.37 — — 2.74 .24 62 “Oceania 94 191 27 49.21 !4. !4 2S.72 .48 .06 16 Amer. J, .%ciol. 93 2599 3.5a — — 1,4s .25 53 Primates 90 5Jl — I’7.61 — — — — Africa 88 269 — 32.71 — — ..% .06 17 Amer. J. Hum. Genet. 83 3155 2.63 — — 3.92 .94 88 ‘J, Amhropof. Sm. Nippon 81 ICO 73 81.fY3 73,03 90.12 .42 .07 44 Z. Morphof. Anthrcqml. 8f IS2 — 53.29 — — Amer. Antiq. 16 667 — fl.39 — — .70 .19 54 “Hum, Organ. 76 355 39 21.41 10,99 51.32 .40 .12 43 Sci. Amer. 66 3211 2.06 — — 3.05 .64 107 “Annu. Rev. Anthropof. 64 175 20 36.57 t I .43 3t .25 .83 JXt f2 Hum. Hered. 62 661 9.38 — — .79 .24 78 Ann. Hum. Genet. 59 t 528 — 3.sb — — 2.42 .64 3s “Cub. Med. psychiit. 58 112 24 51.79 21.43 41.38 1,11 .16 19 “Anthropdogie 57 139 41.01 — — .08 .00 0 1. Dent. Res. 5? 4076 1.40 — — f .62 .32 216 Amer. Nafumfist 53 5273 — 1.01 — — 2.03 S5 137 Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 53 18.355 .29 – — 1,6S .43 798 “Can. Rev. Sociof. Anthropol. Sf 207 45 24.64 21.74 88.24 .30 ,t7 30 Ann. Hum, Biol. 45 3f8 — 14. f5 — — .6? .24 51 “Anlhropol. @l~~. 4 95 6 46.32 6.32 13,64 .24 .00 18 ‘Homo 42 73 16 57.53 2f,92 m. fo ,f9 .23 f3 “Man India 42 49 s 85,71 10.20 11,$0 .02 .30 27 “Mankind 41 69 12 59,42 17.39 29.27 — 11 Comp. Stud, Sot. Hist. 40 254 15,75 — — .63 .08 26 “Bulf. Mere. 5.x. Anthmpol. Paris 39 62 13 62.90 20.97 33.33 .02 .30 17 Anti. Bchav. ?4 3035 1.17 — — 2.0.s .41 172 SW. Sci. Med. 3s 139 25. f8 — — .SN .17 219 Angle Orthodont. 34463 — 7.34 — — .65 .00 2s Evolution 34 3i28 — 1.02 — — 2.68 .59 121 Hum Ecof 34 156 — 21.79 – – .9 .50 20 Hum. Gettef. 343346 1.02 — — 2.10 .3s 209 J. Amt. 33 3692 — .89 — — 1,44 .36 127 Sociof. Anal. 33 171 — f9.30 — — .56 .07 15 “Hormne 32 71 14 45.07 19.72 43.15 .28 .08 13 Amer. J. Orthcdont. 31 12% — 2.39 - — 1.11 .22 105

Articles published in the core anthro- Iished only 2S percent of the papers in pology journals received 7,500 citations the core group in 1982. in 1982, or about one percent of all refer- Table 3 lists the journals most fre- ences cited by journals covered in JCR quently cited by the core anthropology that year. Only four journals account for journals. They are ranked by the num- 53 percent of all citations received by the ber of citations received from the core in core group-A men-can Journal of Physi- 1982. The table also shows the number cal Anthropology, with 1,721 citations; of citations received from all journals, Amen-can Anthropo/ogi~t, 1,110; Cur- self-citation rates, impact factors, imme- rent Anthropology, 589; and Man, 585. diacy indexes, and the number of source However, these same four journals pub- items each journal published in 1982.

295 -- The impact factor measures the citation pology, and one on archaeology. While frequency for the average article pub- anthropology is usuaUy considered a lished during the preceding two years. social science, these citation patterns The immediacy index indicates citation demonstrate the close relationship be- frequency for those articles published tween some anthropological dkciplines during the same year of JCR. The article and the “harder” sciences, particularly counts, impact factors, and immediacy human anatomy, biology, and genetics. indexes for two journals in Table 3 are Anthropology overlaps with a variety of not available because these journals, disciplines in the social sciences and arts Primates and Zeitschrift ffir Morpholo- and humanities as well. For example, a gic und Anthropologic, were not includ- cultural anthropologist may study ar- ed in the 1982 SSC1. However, both of chaeology and publish in such archaeol- these journals are currently being ogy journals as American Antiquity. evaluated for coverage. Impact and im- Table 4 lists the 50 journals which mediacy data for two other journals, most frequently cited the core anthro- Jotirnal of A nthropologicai Research pology journals in 1982. They cited the and Mankind, are unavailable because core journals about 4,500 times, ac- they were only recently added to our counting for 60 percent of the 7,500 cita- data base. tions received by the core from all jour- The 50 journals listed in Table 3 re- nals that year. Twenty-six journals in ceived about 5,500 citations from the Table 4 are in the core group, and they core anthropology journals in 1982. This are indicated by asterisks, Twelve per- amounts to 18 percent of all references cent of the references in these 26 are ci- cited by the core group that year. tations to the core. By comparison, only Twenty-two journals in Table 3 are one percent of the references in the non- themselves core journals, and they are core journals in Table 4 were citations to indicated by asterisks. About 48 percent the anthropology core group. of the citations these 22 journals re- The journal that most frequently cited ceived as a group in 1982 came from core the core group is also the journal most anthropology journals. frequently cited by the core—A men’can Of the 28 non-core journals in Table .Journa[of Physical Anthropology. This 3, the most frequently cited are Science, journal also has the highest impact fac- with 306 citations from the core, and tor of the core anthropology jour- Nature, with 246. These two journals nals— 1.39. Culture, Medicine and Psy- ranked fourth and sixth respectively chiatry ranks second in impact (1.11), among all journals cited by the core. followed by Man (1.09), American Eth- They have appeared among the most- nologist (1.07), and Annual Review of cited journals in almost all of the journal Anthropology (.83). The median impact citation studies we’ve published. Five of the core journals taken as a group was additional multidkciplinary publications .31 in 1982. That year the median impact are listed in Table 3-Afn”ca, Scientific of all SSC1 journals was .35, and the me- American, Annals of the New York dian impact of all SCI journals was .54. Academy of Sciences, Socia[ Science & Since it has been claimed that the way Medicine, and Human Ecology. we calculate impact is biased in favor of Of the21 remaining non-core journals the fast-moving fields, we are studying most frequently cited by the core an- new ways to calculate relative impact. In thropology journals, ten are devoted to thk study, however, we continue to cal- various aspects of biology, four are soci- culate impact by dividing the number of ology journals, two are concerned with articles a journal published in 1980 and the study of primates, three publish den- 1981 into the number of citations these tistry research, one focuses on anthro- articles received in 1982. This baseline

296 Tsbk 4i The 50 journals which most frequently tiled core anthropology joumal$ in 1982. An asterisk indicates a core journal. A =citations to core journals. B =citations to all journals, C = self-citations. D = percent of total citations that arc core journal citations (A/B). E =percent of total citations that are self-citations (self-citing rate C/B), F = percent of cita- tions to core journals that are self-citations (C/A), G= impact factor. H= immediacy index, I= 1982 source items.

A B c D E F G n 1

“Amer. 1. Phys. Anrhropoi. 672 3772 Y36 1?.82 13.41 75.3Q 1.39 .25 I22 “Cum. Anthmpul. 460 3436 145 13.39 4.22 31.52 .79 .38 61 “Annu. Rev. Anthm@ 315 t743 20 18,07 1.15 6.35 .83 .08 12 ‘J. Hum Evol, 257 t975 98 13.01 4.% 3a.13 .62 ,20 &3 “Amer. EthnoL 223 1844 60 12.09 3.25 26.91 I .?7 ,39 41 “Antbropos 186 1728 67 [0,76 3.88 36.02 .35 .11 47 “Amer. Anthmpol. [51 [591 58 9.49 3,65 3a.41 ,79 .22 27 “Man Its 1044 48 1 I .02 4,60 41.74 I .Y3 .19 27 ‘J. Anthropol, Sot. Nippon 113 6% 73 16.24 10.49 64.643 .42 .07 44 “Homo t02 6X3 16 16.19 2.54 15.69 .19 .23 13 SW. Sci. Med. 101 6’708 — 1.51 —— .Ci3 .17 219 “Ethnology 93 59 I 21 15.74 3.55 22,58 so .12 26 “J. Anthropol. Rcs. 93 ‘?36 [0 10.26 1.10 to.75 — — 23 Amer. Antiq. so 2COS — 3.98 —— ,70 .19 54 “Hum. Organ. 80 1126 39 7.10 3,46 48.75 .40 ,12 43 Hum. Biol. 77 1267 6,08 —— .67 ,1s 46 FF Commun. 74 559 — 13,24 —— .Co .CQ 2 Ann. Hum. Bid, 70 1248 — 5.61 — — .67 ,24 51 “Oceania 66 398 27 16,58 6.78 40.91 .48 ,W 16 Hum. Ecol. 65 779 — 8.34 —— .50 .50 20 Amer. J, Pt’imatol. 64 2252 — 2,84 — — .75 .02 88 Folia Primmrol. 61 1377 — 4.43 — [ .08 ,15 54 “Can. Rev. .%ciol. AnthropoL 57 1024 45 5.57 4,39 78.95 .30 .17 30 “CoUegium Amtrapol. 57 405 12 14.07 2,% 21.05 .17 .C4J 18 “Ens<. Amhro@, 46 427 16 10.77 3.75 34.78 .03 .03 19 “Anthrofwl. Educ. Quart. 43 509 21 8.48 4.14 48.84 .74 JXJ 16 “Mankind 42 335 12 12.54 3.58 28,57 — It Science 41 27,145 .15 —— 6.8( 1.73 9.?4 “Cult. Med. Psychiat, 38 497 24 7,65 4.83 63. [6 1.11 .16 19 “Antbmfml. Quart. 37 457 6 8.10 1.31 16.22 .24 .72 18 Nature 37 36,347 .10 —— 8.75 2,10 1362 Signs 37 2143 — I ,73 —— I .03 ,21 29 Can. J. Sociol. 36 812 — 4.43 —— .27 ,07 15 Hum. Hered. 34 1274 — 2,67 —— .79 .24 78 “J. Fare. Hist. 34 726 18 4.68 2.48 52,94 .45 .27 22 Amer. Behav. Sci. 32 1170 2.74 —— .32 .17 41 Etbn. Racial Stud. 32 1093 — 2.93 — ,41 .tm 33 “Homme 32 424 14 7.5$ 3.30 43.7s .28 .08 13 “Antttmpol, L~uist. 3t 403 13 7,69 3.23 41,94 .05 .IX1 18 Latin Amer. Res. Rev. 31 I605 — 1,93 —— .36 .03 30 Prog. Hunt. GCOE. m 2642 1.14 —— — .66 33 Arch. Eur. ?.ociol. 29 761 3.81 —— .44 .02 11 Deut. Vler. Lk. Geist. 29 1933 — I .50 — — .13 .30 33 Wtwtd Archaeol. 29 1027 2.82 —— ,35 .(X 27 Amer. J. Orthcx(ont. 28 2210 1,27 — . 1.11 .22 105 “Bull. Mere. SOC. Antbropd. Paris 28 (98 13 14.14 6.S7 46,43 .79 .00 17 Comp. Stud. SW. Hist. 28 1721 1.63 —— ,63 .08 26 “Ethos 28 6-47 4,33 —— .31 .32 19 Rev. J?.duc, Res. 27 1952 — t .38 — — 2.81 ,05 20 Annaks-Econ. Sot. Civil. 26 2087 — I ,25 —— ,18 .Y3 53 may be more appropriate for journals in dian age of articles from each journal biochemistry and molecular biology, which were cited in 1982. For example, whose articles are cited soon after publi- American Ethnologist has a cited ha ff- cation. But in anthropology, the “peak” Iife of 4.5. This means that half of the ci- citation years may be later. tations this journal had received as of In order to determine these peak cita- the end of 1982 were to articles pub- tion years, we rely on a journal’s “half- lished during the previous four and a half Iiie.” Table 5 lists the half-lives for the years. journals in this study. The* are repro- Citing half-liie dtifers from citid ha ff- duced from the 1982 JCR. The column life in that it indicates the age of the ma- on the left gives each journal’s cited half- terial that each journal cites. Citing half- liie. The cited half-life indicates the me- liie is defined as the number of years,

297 .. . . Table 5] 19S2 .YSCF cited and citing half-life of core may not retlect peak cltatlon years. It anthropology journals. Ioumals with asterisks also appear in the SCP cited and citing half-file listings. loumals with also explains why the immediacy indexes m Jktmg either received less than ICO cilanons in 1982. for anthropology journals are generally or gave out less than lfXl citahons i“ 1982. A = cited half- lower than those for journals in the life. B= ciung half-life, C= core anthropology ]ouma[ “harder” sciences. A B c Among the core journals, the journal >100 6.5 Amer. Anthropol with the highest immediacy index is 4.5 8.9 Amer. Ethnol. American Ethnologist (.39), followed by 6.8 8.9 ‘Amer. J. Phys. An fhropol 5.1 5.8 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. Currt?nl Anthropology (.38), ~thO$ ( .32), — Anthropol, Kozlem.— Journai of Family History (.27), Anlbr. Commun and — Ant bropologica American Journal of Physical A nthro- — >101 Amhropol. Linguist. — 7,8 Anthropol. Quart pology (.25). The immediacy index is >10.0 – Amhropologie calculated by dividing the number of ar- — 8.4 Anthropol. Educ. Quart. Anthropology UCLA ticles a journal published in 1982 into the > 10; >101 Anthmpcm number of citations they received that — >10.0 Arct]c Anthropol. same — — Bijdr. Taal- Land- Volke.k.nde year. The median immediacy of — >10.0 Bull. Mcm. SW. Anthropol. Paris the core journals as a group is .08, com- 6.3 9.0 Can. Rev. ?mciol. Anthmpol. pared with .13 for all SSCI journals and — — Chin. Sociol. Anthropcd .—Engl. Tr 91 CoOegium Anlropof. .11 for all SCZ journals indexed in the 3.8 6.4 Cult. Med. Psychiat. SSCI and SC1 JCf?s. 6.2 >10.0 Curr An fhropol — >10.0 Dialect. Anlhropol. Influential articles, like important — >10.0 East. AnthropoL journals, can be identified by citation >100 >10.0 Ethnology — >10.0 Ethos analysis. Table 6 lists the articles from — 9.9 Homme the core anthropology journals that re- >10.0 Homo > 10; 8.2 Hum. Orgrm. ceived at least 100 citations between — J. Anthropol. Rcs. 1966 and 1982. Nine articles met or ex- 3.9 >10.0 – J. Fare. Hist 5.4 8.4 ‘J Hum. E.ol. ceeded this threshold. They were pub- 5.2 >10.0 J. Peasant Stud. lished in five journals. Four of the most- >10.0 >10.0 J, Anlhropol. SOC Nippon J, Polynesia” SW. cited articles were published in Amen”- 9.4 9.0– Man can A nthropologi.st, white Ethno[ogy ac- — >10.0 Man India — Mankind counts for two. The remaining three >101 Mankind Quart. journals each published one of the >10.0 9. I Oceania — 9.4 SW. Networks “classic” anthropology articles. >10.0 %v. Anthropof, Archcol. —Engl. Tr. Three of the nine most-cited papers in — Z. Ethnol. this study were written by G.P. Mur- from the current year back, which ac- dock. The earliest of these was pub- counts for 50 percent of the total cita- lished in 1957, when he was at Yale Uni- tions given by the citing journal during versity, New Haven, Connecticut. This the current year. A figure greater than paper, entitled “World ethnographic ten indtcates that more than 50 percent sample,” presents a sample of roughly of citations given by a journal in 1982 600 cultures around the world, from an- were to articles published before 1973. cient Egypt to Soviet Russia. Each cul- In future studies, a program modtiica- ture is also classified by various ethno- tion wilf aflow us to give precise half-life graphic categories---+ettlement pat- figures greater as well as less than ten. terns, division of Iabor by sex, marriage, As you can see, many anthropology kinship organization, etc. This paper is journals in this study have cited and cit- the third most-cited in our study. By ing half-lives greater than ten. The ten- 1967, Murdock, then at the University of dency for old material to be cited ex- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had expanded plains why impact factors based on cita- his ethnographic sample to a set of 21 in- tion counts for 1980 and 1981 articles stallments, including more than 1,000

298 Tabfe 6: The nine most-cited anthropology articles from the core journals. Each article received lCO or more citations combined from the 1%6-1982 SCF and SSCP, Papers are fisted in alphabetical order by first author. A = total citations, B= bibfiogmphic data.

A B

122 Bmry H, Cfdfd I L & Bacon M K. Refmion of child training to subsistence economy. Amer Anthmpof. 61:51-63, 1959. 138 Evemden J F & Cmtka G H. The P@assium-argon dating of late Cenozoic rocks in East Africa and Italy. Cuw A“thropol. 6:343-85. 1%5. 207 Foster G M. Peasant society and the image of limited good. ,4 mer Anthropof 67:293-315, f %5. 116 Joffy C J. Tbe seed-eatem a new model of hominid differentiation based on a baboon analogy. Mm 5:5-26, 1970. 1(Y3 MM* M L & Ymmg R W. A fwcticmal approach to craniolc,gy, Amer. J. Phyt, Anthrqm(, (8:28 I-92, f960. 355 Mtwdock G P. Ethnographic atlas: a summary, Ethno/ogy 6:109-236, 1%7, (Also pubfishcd as Murdcck G P Ethnogmphic atlas. Phtsburgh: University of Phtsbur8h Press, 1%7. 128 p.) I7’9 Mwdock G P. World ethnographic sample. Amer. Anthmpo/ 59:664-87, 1957. 145 MumJock G P & Whfte D R. Standard .woss-cuttuml sample. Hhnology 8:329-68, 1%9, 156 Wdacc A F C. Revitalization movements. Amer. A nthropol. 58:264-81, 1956. societies. In 1967, an entire issue of Another perspective on the half-life of Ethnology was devoted to a summary of articles in this field is illustrated in this expanded ethnographic sample. The Table 6. The “youngest” paper was pub- same year, the summary was also issued lished in 1970. Three were published in as a book by the University of Pittsburgh the late 1950s, and five in the 1960s. In Press. The book has received 225 cita- fast-moving fields vintage work is often tions, the journal version 130. So at 355 absorbed into the field’s body of com- cites, this is the most-cited “article” in mon knowledge and is no longer our study. Another paper by Murdock, explicitly cited. That is, it becomes published in Ethnology in 1969, is also “obliterated.”lo based on hM earlier samples, but pre- We can now identify the most signifi- sents a refined analysis of 186 cultures. It cant anthropology joumals. Eleven core was cited 145 times through 1982, journals ranked among the top 20 in The second most-cited paper (over both Tables 3 and 4. That is, they most 200 cites), published in American An- frequently cited, and were cited by, the thropologist, was authored by G.M. core journals. When we also take into Foster, University of California, Berke- account impact factors and immediacy, ley, and entitled “Peasant society and ten core joumafs ranked among the top the image of liiited good.” Pubfished in 20-Amencan Anthropologist, Amen”- 1965, this paper discusses the cognitive can Ethnologist, American Joumai of orientation of peasants. It explains how Physical Anthropology, A nthropos, Cur- their social premises and assumptions rent Anthropology, Ethnology, Journal may prevent rapid economic develop- of Human Evolution, Journal of the An- ment in peasant societies. thropological Society of Nippon, Man, The fourth most-cited paper is by and Oceania. A.F.C. Waflace, University of Pennsyl- Citation studies such as this one may vania, Philadelphia, and was published be useful to editors. Surely it is of some in Amen”can A nthropofogist in 1956. value to know how often and by what This paper is a comparative study enti- other journals your publication is cited. tled “Revitalization movements.” It On the other hand, scholars may use identifies parallel features of nativism; these data in deciding where to submit religious revivals; utopian movements, papers. Librarians can use JCR to allo- both secular and religious; and other cate limited shelf space and subscription types of movements through which so- budgets. JCR was never intended to be cial groups seek to rectify stresses inher- used as the sole indicator of a journal’s ent in the status quo. usefulness or importance. But data in

299 JCR should be provided to those entrust- challenged Rounds’s assertion that cita- ed with such decisions so that they can tion relationships between journals can supplement other indicators and appro- be used to locate “dominant” journals. priate subjective evaluations. One of He also argued that conclusions based .fCR’s chief virtues, apart from theob- on citation patterns neglect the import- jective, statistical data on journals it ance of specialized journals. Despite provides, is that it reveals the network of their low citation counts, he cautioned, journals for the field involved. these joumafs are nonetheless signifk Recently, J. Rounds, University of cant to the group of scholars they are California, Los Angeles, used JCR data meant to serve. 12 to assess citation patterns between an- Perhaps the most remarkable aspect thropology journals, and to determine of anthropological research, in spite of what contribution these journals made its relatively small size, is the high degree to “mainstream anthropological theo- of public interest in it. Thk is reflected in ry.” 11In particular, he examined Human the readership of magazines like Nation- Organization, an applied anthropology al Geogmphic. Unlike such popular sci- journal, to determine what journals it entific publications as Scientific Amen”- cited, and vice versa. From this data, he can, however, National Geogmphic is concfuded that this journal had a rela- not highly cited by scholars in anthropol- tively minor impact on mainstream an- ogy. This is because it is primarily a thropological theory. Rounds correctly descriptive, rather than an analytical, pointed out that his study was prelimi- publication. nary, and that more research was need- ***** ed. He also cited many of the caveats on citation analysis that we have discussed repeatedly. Nonetheless, his study still My thanks to Abigail W. Grksom and evoked criticism. In another article, Kathleen Neil Schalch for their help in R. W. Stoffle, University of Wisconsin, the prepamtion of this essay. *law 1s1

REFERENCES

1. GmUeld E. Journal citation studies. 39, Earth sciences journals: what they cite and what cites them Currenf Contents (52):5-14, 27 December 1982. 2. ------Journal citation studies. 37, Using citation analysis to study the neuroscience journals. Curmnf Conferrts (41):5-14, 1I October 1982. 3, ------Journal citation studies. 38. Arts and humanities joumafs differ from natural and social sciences joumafs-but their similarities are surprising. Currenr Contents (47):5-11, 22 November 1982. 4. Kmefrcw A L. ed. Anthropology today. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1953.958 p. 5. Karrffner A. Anthropology. (Hsfaey W D & Friedman E, eds.) GMierk etrcyc(opedia, New York: Macmillan Educational, 1980. Vol. 2. p. 296-313-0. 6. WhJte C M. Anthropology. Source$ of irr~orrnation in ~he social $ciences, Totowa, NJ: Bedminster Press, 1964. p. 229-W. 7, ...... Amthmpo[ogy,&XIrCeS of information in the social sciences. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1973, p, 307-27. 8. Gmf[eld E. How do we select journals for Cun’enf Contents? Essays of an information scien(ist. Philadelphia: 1S1 Press, 1981. Vol. 4. p. 309-12. (Reprinted from: Current Contents (45): 5-8, 5 November 1979.) 9, ...... How to use .foumal Citation Reports, includlng a special salute to the ~ohm Hopkin$ Medics/ Journal. Current Corrterrts (17):5-12, 25 April 1983. 10. ------The ‘obliteration phenomenon’ in science—and the advantage of being obliterated! Essays of an inforrna(ion .cierr/ist. Phdadelphia: 1S1 Press, 1977. Vol. 2. p. 396-8. (Reprinted from: Current Contents (51/52):5-7, 22 December 1975. ) 11. Rounds J. Theory and applied anthropology: an empirical approach, Hum. Organ. 41:167-70, 1982. 12. Stoffle R W. Citations, theories, and appIied anthropology: a response to Rounds. Hum. Organ. 41:363-5, 1982.

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