Core journal literatures and persistent research themes in an emerging interdisciplinary field: Exploring the literature of evolutionary developmental biology

Katherine W. McCain

Journal of Informetrics, 2010, vol. 4, issue 2, 157-165

Abstract: This paper reports two interrelated citation-based studies of the intellectual structure of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo). The core journals of Evo-Devo (Evolution & Development, Development, Genes & Evolution, and Journal of Experimental Zoology, pt. B) and its supporting/parental disciplines are identified and their strong citation links mapped based on data from Journal Citation Reports, 2005–2007. Evo-Devo cites into Developmental Biology in all three years and exchanges citations with Paleontology in 2007. There are no strong connections with either general or molecular Evolution journals. Persistent, visible research themes are visualized as citing-cited networks and subnetworks of articles extracted from the Web of Science for the core Evo-Devo journals and a larger set of articles citing one or more Evo-Devo journals. Most research themes in the core set are specific to a single journal. Few highly cited core journal articles are also visible in the broader set of networks and subnetworks, although some themes (e.g., arthropod body plans, chordate genes/gene expression) are visible in both data sets.

Keywords: Citation analysis; Core journal network; Research theme; Evolutionary developmental biology; Interdisciplinarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157709000820
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:4:y:2010:i:2:p:157-165

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2009.11.004

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Informetrics is currently edited by Leo Egghe

More articles in Journal of Informetrics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().