Toddling towards childhood: A bibliometric analysis of the first QROM lustrum (2006-2010)

Abstract

The first years in the life of a journal are the most difficult ones as editors need to advertise it effectively and attract worldwide researchers to safeguard its launch and maintenance. This study provides a bibliometric analysis of the first lustrum of the journal Qualitative Research in Organizational and Management (QROM) in an attempt to assess its production both in methodological and conceptual terms. The sample was made up of 66 articles by 109 (co-)authors from 66 institutions. A total of 53.2% of contributors were female and were responsible for 42.4% of the single-authored articles (compare to 34.8% of only-male articles). Eight "invisible schools,", 37.5% national ones, were obtained by relating authors to sharing co-authors (grade 1), institutions (grade 2) or cities (grade 3). The most productive authors were Cassell, Grandy, and McKenna, the first two being developers of invisible schools. The number of articles, theoretical perspectives, and diversity of applied techniques has increased in QROM over the lustrum period with UK and Canada as most prolific countries followed by USA, Sweden, and Australia. Most articles dealt with organizational and managerial issues under discourses or narrative perspectives using interviews and sense-making theories. The evolution of these findings is also presented. © 2013: Eduardo Infante and Nova Southeastern University.