Citation Patterns in Organization and Management Journals: Margins and Centres

Abstract

Citations tell us something about the patterns of knowledge exchange around a particular journal. To examine this network, one can use Thomson Reuters’ Journal Citation Reports database and derive three basic citation relationships: the numbers of articles citing (and thus influenced by) a journal, articles cited by (thus influencing) a journal, as well as the self-citation rate of the journal. In this article we examine the patterns relating to 27 selected journals in organization and management. The article proposes an influence metric with a citing and cited pair. The metric is applied to develop a taxonomy which classifies journals into one of four types of influence network, and comments on the way in which this sort of citation data locates Organization clearly on the margins in a number of important ways. We also comment on whether marginalization is an effect of interdisciplinarity, and political and methodological heterodoxy