Citation relationships among international mass communication journals

Abstract

A citation analysis of selected mass communication jour nals using clustering and multidimensional scaling tech niques was performed to determine relationships among international journals in this developing field. Results of the analysis confirm that US journals are currently at the center of the field. The field seems to be heavily described by two dimensions: geography and theory/research. The geograph ical dimension was defined by US journals, European jour nals and others. The theory/research dimension follows a basic critical-empirical dichotomy evident in the literature. The study findings also corroborate current theories of scholarly community development. © 1995, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.