01

Mapping Scientific
Communication
Online
WISNU MURTI P (A15.2020.01909)

02
In this study, the authors have three objectives:
To make aggregated
journal-journal citation
networks based on the
Journal Citation Reports
2004 of the Science
Citation Index (5968
journals) and the Social
Science Citation Index
(1712 journals) accessible
online from the
perspective of any of
these journals.
ABSTRACT
To study the journal structure To replace the notion of a global impact
of communication studies as a factor with that of a local impact factor
discipline using the Journal of relative to a journal’s citation
Communication as an environment. The local impact of a
example. Communication journal in its citation environment can be
studies can be considered as a defined as its share of the total citations
single field from the in this environments. The vertical size of
perspective of “being cited,” the nodes is varied proportionally to this
but it is divided into two citation impact; the horizontal axis of
communities who reconstruct each node will be used to provide the
the field differently by making same information after correction for
references. within-journal (self-)citations.
METHODS
03

All journals of the Journal Citation Report 2004 were mapped in terms of
the cosines among the vectors of the journals in the environments of each
seed journal. This was done for both the Science Citation Index (5968
journals) and the Social Science Citation Index (1712 journals). The relevant
environment for each subsequent journal was determined by including all
journals which cite or are cited by the journal under study to the extent of
one percent of its citation rate in the respective dimension (He & Pao, 1986;
Leydesdorff, 1986). This generates sets on the order of 10-50 journals. For
each set, a 5 citation (transaction) matrix can be composed. Note that the
citation environments were delineated differently in the cited and the citing
dimensions.
 RESULT
04

The paper discusses the data, using the position of the Journal of
Communication as an example to explain the options provided by this
methodology. The choice for the Journal of Communication is convenient
because this journal’s environment informs us thoroughly about the
structure of relations in this field (Lauf, 2005). In a previous study—using
2001-data—Leydesdorff (2004b, at pp. 174 ff.) used Communication
Research as the seed journal and found two bi-connected components in the
citing patterns of journals in communication studies: “political
communication” and “interhuman communication.” Journals in either
component cited journals in the other grouping to a significantly lower
degree. The Journal of Communication, however, was the one with highest
factor loadings on both dimensions.
CONCLUSION
05

The ISI journal set is by definition a “mixed bag” and its classification into
subsets remains therefore dependent on the choice of a perspective (Lauf,
2005). This choice can be formalized in terms of parameters, algorithms, and
thresholds (Pudovkin & Garfield, 2002). Given a perspective, the delineations
remain additionally sensitive to the inclusion or exclusion of (e.g.,
interdisciplinary) journals in the relevant environments. Recently, it has
become clear that for theoretical reasons no single “best” classification is
possible (Bensman, 2001; Leydesdorff, 2006a). The choice in this study of a
journal-based organization of relevant environments is based upon an
(communication-theoretical) awareness that the aggregation is never robust
and therefore can be left to the user.
THANK U