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National diversity of major international journals in the field of communication
Abstract
The journal ranking of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) is increasingly
becoming an international currency for the quality of research output. More than 40
communication journals, thus major international ones, are ISI-ranked. This analysis
of ISI-data reveals that the attribute "international" is not always appropriate.
International diversity of communication journals is very low due to a dominance of
US American authors. Younger journals and an explicitly stated international mission
lead to higher national diversity, while the internationality of the affiliated
organization or impact of a journal had no influence on national diversity. The results
suggest that it may be desirable (1) to distinguish clearly between national and
international communication journals and (2) to enlarge the ISI sample to national and
international communication journals.