Article,
The relationship between research approach and citation behavior of political scientists
Library & Information Science Research, 10 (3): 231 - 236 (1988)
Abstract
A method is proposed to clarify certain factors underlying citation behavior within a single discipline. This method, which is an extension and refinement of citation analysis, was used to analyze the citation patterns of political scientists in relation to variations in their research approaches. Research articles in political science were operationally classified as to their analytic disposition into behavioral or traditional, and as to their method of research into quantitative or nonquantitative. Analysis of variance showed that differences in research approaches were a significant predictor for six of ten citation variables examined. Journal citation rate was higher for behavioralists than traditionalists. Behavioralists cited literature of greater median age than traditionalists, and the nonquantitative group cited a higher percentage of nonpolitical science subjects, had a higher journal citation rate, cited literature of a lower median age and cited more non-English literature
