Quotation statistics and culture in literature and in other humanist disciplines

Abstract

The humanities display a strong skepticism toward bibliometric evaluations of their quotation practices. This is odd, since their citations partly serve the same purpose as they do in the sciences: They can indicate a beneficial influence on one’s own work. In Literature, a still-stranger observation asks for an explanation: Even in the most important journals, the articles receive only an astonishingly few citations. This paper presents some facts about the quotation culture, the low levels of citation and the databases involved. It shows that the low numbers are not a product of deficiencies in data, but should be subject to analysis. In the final discussion, this paper offers two explanations: Either Literature is, in fact, no discipline that should be treated as academic; or Literature is a discipline facing its own imminent intellectual death. Yet it is hoped that other explanations will be found; however, this issue requires further research on the practices in Literature and related fields.