Perceived quality and citation rates of education journals

Abstract

Citation rates have been shown to be positively related to the scholarly stature of individuals, academic departments, and scientific journals in a number of academic disciplines. The results of this study show a much weaker relationship between the citation rates and perceived quality of education journals than reported in studies of other disciplines. However, this overall finding masks wide variation in the relationship for specific education specialty areas and between "core" and "allied" education journals. The implications of these findings for subsequent research on the complex process of knowledge diffusion and utilization are discussed. © 1983 Agathon Press, Inc.