Abstract
Editorial boards (EBs) play a crucial role in setting journals’ scientific output, generally determining what legitimate science is and thus establishing a benchmark on what should be published. EB members are generally prominent scholars in a given discipline and, as such, are habitually connected to several journals’ EB, a phenomenon known as editorial board interlocking. This exploratory study analyses the EB interlocking in a sample of communication journals. Specifically, we apply social network analysis to investigate how 41 JCR (Journal Citation Report) communication journals are connected through EB interlocking. Using graph theory and social network analysis, we identified the scholarly journal network, the high influential journals and scholars, and the cohesive subgroups (i.e. invisible colleges) within the communication field. Our findings shed some important light on the network structure of EBs in communication sciences, arguing that the exploration of editorial interlocks is a complemental approach to understand academic journals’ influence within academic fields.
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NetworkX package documentation https://networkx.github.io/.
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Appendix 1: Journals included in the study
Appendix 1: Journals included in the study
New Media & Society, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Communication, Media Psychology, Communication Research, Journal of Advertising, Communication Theory, Information, Communication & Society, Public Understanding of Science, Political Communication, International Journal of Advertising, Comunicar, Journal of Advertising Research, Journalism Studies, Research on Language and Social Interaction, Science Communication, Communication Monographs, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Health Communication, Human Communication Research, Telecommunications Policy, International Journal of Press-Politics, International Journal of Communication, Health Communication, Journalism, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Environmental Communication, European Journal of Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, Television & New Media, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Public Relations Review, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Written Communication, Media Culture & Society, Games and Culture, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Technical Communication.
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Goyanes, M., de-Marcos, L. Academic influence and invisible colleges through editorial board interlocking in communication sciences: a social network analysis of leading journals. Scientometrics 123, 791–811 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03401-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03401-z