Mapping the field of educational administration research: a journal citation network analysis
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-02-2015-0013 |
| Published date | 03 May 2016 |
| Date | 03 May 2016 |
| Author | Yinying Wang,Alex J. Bowers |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy |
A JOURNAL CITATION NETWORK ANALYSIS OF THE FIELD OF EDUCATIONAL
ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH 1
Mapping the Field of Educational Administration Research:
A Journal Citation Network Analysis
A JOURNAL CITATION NETWORK ANALYSIS OF THE FIELD OF EDUCATIONAL
ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH 2
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to uncover how knowledge is exchanged and disseminated
in the educational administration research literature through the journal citation network.
Research Methods: Drawing upon social network theory and citation network studies in other
disciplines, we constructed an educational administration journal citation network by extracting
all 157,372 citations from 5,359 journal articles in 30 educational administration journals from
2009 to 2013. We then performed social network analysis to visualize the network structure by
journal clusters, and quantified journal prominence and interdisciplinarity by calculating
Freeman indegree and betweenness, respectively. In addition to journal-to-journal citations, we
examined the sources of non-journal citations by citation counts.
Findings: The results of journal prominence, interdisciplinarity, and eight journal clusters in the
citation network indicate that educational administration, as a porous field, intimately interacts
with the sub-fields of education (e.g., urban education and teacher education), other disciplines
(e.g., economics, human resources, sociology, and psychology), and the research internationally.
In addition to journals as the knowledge source (45.29%), we also found books (31.08%) and
reports (14.98%) are important citation sources in the educational administration research
literature. The most cited books and reports shed light on the knowledge base in the theory,
research, and practice of educational administration.
Originality/value: The results of this by far the largest-scale study of educational administration
journals present abundant evidence that educational administration is a porous field. This study
also presents social network analysis as an alternative method to evaluate journal influence in the
educational administration field.
A JOURNAL CITATION NETWORK ANALYSIS OF THE FIELD OF EDUCATIONAL
ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH 3
Keywords: citation analysis, bibliometrics, citations (references), citation indexes, social network
analysis, educational administration, educational leadership, journal articles, faculty publishing,
classification
To continue reading
Request your trial