ABSTRACT

The present study aims to use citation analysis to present a relatively comprehensive and systematic picture of the influence of the Excellence Study on scholarship. Specifically, it has the following objectives: (1) to explore the citations of the Excellence Study and identify its shifts over the past 20 years (from 1992 to 2011); (2) to identify the topics of the journal articles citing the Excellence Study; (3) to investigate the influence of the Excellence Study in terms of geography and language; and (4) to explore how the Excellence Study has been applied by various disciplines and fields.

A total of 1,862 citations of the Excellence Study were recorded, including 1,477 English works and 385 non-English works in 24 languages. Major findings were (1) The wide impact of the Excellence Study is borne out by the quantity of citations in various types of works, including journal articles, books, book chapters, conference papers, and dissertations/theses over the past two decades; (2) the total numbers of English citations are many more than that of non-English citations, though the gap between them is narrowing; (3) journal publishers from 15 countries and book publishers from 14 countries have published works citing the Excellence Study; and (4) the disciplines citing the Excellence Study include advertising and PR, business and economics, communications, public administration, sociology, law, and philosophy.