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Following the Footnotes: a Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Patterns in Literary Studies

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Following the Footnotes: a Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Patterns in Literary Studies Following the Footnotes Skrifter utgivna av Institutionen för ABM vid Uppsala universitet. Volume 5. Distribution: Department of ALM Uppsala University Box 625 751 26 Uppsala [email protected] Editorial board: Inga-Lill Aronsson (museology), Eva Hemmungs Wirtén (library & information science), Reine Rydén (archival science), and Kerstin Rydbeck (main editor). The front cover illustration is a visualization of citation patterns among 724 Journals in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index from the year 2008. The author wishes to thank Alkim Almila Alkdag Salah and Loet Leydesdorff for permission to use this image. Following the Footnotes A Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Patterns in Literary Studies Björn Hammarfelt Skrifter utgivna av Inst. för ABM vid Uppsala universitet. Volume 5 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Universitetshuset, sal IX, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 10:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Abstract Hammarfelt, B. 2012. Following the Footnotes: A Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Patterns in Literary Studies. Department of ALM. Skrifter utgivna av Institutionen för ABM vid Upp- sala universitet 5. 193 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-506-2279-9. This thesis provides an in-depth study of the possibilities of applying bibliometric methods to the research field of literary studies. The four articles that constitute the backbone of this thesis focus on different aspects of references and citations in literary studies: from the use of references in the text to citation patterns among 34 literature journals. The analysis covers both an Anglo-Saxon context as well as research in Swedish literary studies, and the materials used include Web of Science data, references in the Swedish literature journal TFL (Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap) and applications to the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). A study is also made of the influence of one single publication—Walter Benjamin’s Illumina- tions—and its impact in literary studies and in wider academia. The results from the four articles are elaborated upon using a theoretical framework that focuses on differences in the social and intellectual organization of research fields. According to these theories literary studies can be described as a fragmented, heterogenic, interdiscipli- nary and ‘rural’ field with a diverse audience. The fragmented and rural organization of the field is reflected in low citation frequencies as well as in the difficulties in discerning research specialities in co-citation mappings, while the analysis of the intellectual base (highly cited authors) is an example of the heterogenic and interdisciplinary character of the field, as it includes authors from many fields across the humanities and the social sciences. The thesis emphasizes that bibliometric studies of research fields in the humanities need to incorporate non-English and non-journal publications in order to produce valid and fair re- sults. Moreover, bibliometric methods must be modified in accordance with the organization of research in a particular field, and differences in referencing practices and citation patterns ought to be considered. Consequently, it is advised that bibliometric measures for evaluating research in these fields should, if used at all, be applied with great caution. Keywords: Bibliometrics, citation analysis, scholarly communication, research practices, literary studies, the humanities, visualization Björn Hammarfelt, Uppsala University, Department of ALM, Box 625, SE-751 26 Uppsala, Sweden. © Björn Hammarfelt 2012 ISBN 978-91-506-2279-9 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-170504 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-170504) Printed by Edita Västra Aros, Västerås, 2012 List of Papers I. Hellqvist [Hammarfelt], Björn (2010). Referencing in the humanities and its implications for citation analysis. Journal of the American Society for Infor- mation Science and Technology, 61(2), 310-318. II. Hammarfelt, Björn (2011). Interdisciplinarity and the intellectual base of litera- ture studies: Citation analysis of highly cited monographs. Scientometrics, 86(3), 705-725. III. Hammarfelt, Björn (2011). Citation analysis on the micro-level: The example of Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations. Journal of the American Society for Infor- mation Science and Technology, 62(5), 819-830. IV. Hammarfelt, Björn (2012). Harvesting footnotes in a rural field: Citation pat- terns in Swedish literary studies (to appear in Journal of Documentation). The articles are reproduced with permission from the publishers. Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... ix Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xi 1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 13 Structure of the Thesis .............................................................................. 16 Bibliometrics as an Research Area ........................................................... 17 The Humanities and Literary studies: Definition, Delineation, and Operationalization .................................................................................... 20 2. Scholarly Communication, Research Practices, and Citation Patterns in the Humanities .......................................................................................... 26 Searching and Writing .............................................................................. 27 Submitting and Publishing ........................................................................ 28 Linking or Citing ...................................................................................... 30 Collaboration and the Growth of Knowledge ........................................... 37 Reviewing and Evaluating ........................................................................ 39 Scholarship in Literary Studies: Research Practices in Transition? ......... 44 3. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................. 47 The Social and Intellectual Organization of Research Fields ................... 48 Academic Tribes ....................................................................................... 52 New Modes of Knowledge Production .................................................... 54 Interdisciplinarity ...................................................................................... 56 A Theoretical Toolbox for the Study of Citation Patterns ........................ 58 Visualizations, Mapping Techniques, and Topographical Metaphors ..... 60 4. Referencing in the Humanities and its Implications for Citation Analysis ......................................................................................................... 64 Introduction .............................................................................................. 64 A Brief History of Annotation .................................................................. 66 References as Rhetorical Devices ............................................................. 68 Referencing and the Intellectual Organization of the Humanities ........... 71 Discussion ................................................................................................. 76 References ................................................................................................ 79 5. Interdisciplinarity and the Intellectual Base of Literature Studies: Citation Analysis of Highly Cited Monographs ............................................ 83 Introduction .............................................................................................. 83 Methods and Materials ............................................................................. 87 The Intellectual Base of Literature Studies .............................................. 89 The Two Levels of Literature Studies ...................................................... 94 Interdisciplinarity and Intellectual structure ............................................. 95 Citation Patterns and Intellectual Organization ...................................... 100 Discussion ............................................................................................... 101 References .............................................................................................. 106 6. Citation Analysis on the Micro Level: The Example of Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations ............................................................................ 109 Introduction ............................................................................................ 109 Background ............................................................................................. 110 Methods and Material ............................................................................. 113 Results .................................................................................................... 114 Discussion ............................................................................................... 127 References .............................................................................................. 132 7. Harvesting Footnotes in a Rural Field: Citation Patterns in Swedish Literary Studies ........................................................................................... 135 Introduction ...........................................................................................
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