Productive entities and citation patterns of highly cited papers in public administration domain: An informetric profile

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of highly cited public administration articles in the Social Science Citation Index published from 1900 to 2022. Results show that classic works were revealed to frequently occur in the 1970s, and most of articles are on collaborative governance research. The output of countries, institutions, authors, and journals in the field of public administration also was revealed. In addition, the study discovers the life cycle of highly cited articles, including three types: “delayed growth,” “steady growth,” and “rapid growth.” This study describes the citation behavior characteristics of academic entities in the discipline of public administration and the common rules of highly cited papers, which provides insights for the future development direction of the discipline of public administration research.