Intercultural relations: A bibliometric survey

This study provides an analysis for the development of the intercultural relations (IR) discipline by using the references of the highest cited IR records in Thompson Reuter's Web of Science (WoS) database. Using comprehensive searching and manual coding, a highly specific dataset representing the IR discipline is constructed and described. In terms of authors, citations to John Berry's and Colleen Ward's works are on the rise while citations to William Gudykunst and Richard Brislin are declining. The International Journal of Intercultural Relations (IJIR) is found to be the most cited journal in the past 30 years. The classic texts such as Culture's Consequences ( Hofstede, 1980 and Hofstede, 2001) and Beyond Culture ( Hall, 1976) are still highly cited in the field after many decades. Psychology, communication, and sociology are found to be highly influential disciplines. Psychology continues to contribute the majority of references. References are decreasing in the field of communication and increasing in the fields of medicine and business. The trend of this change over time is quantified and shown to be statistically significant. The analysis also shows that the top six influential disciplines are psychology, business, the biomedical sciences, sociology, communication and anthropology. The groups studied in the top cited articles in WoS are biased toward those in the United States. Lastly, this study uses co-citation analysis to show that IR publications bridge multiple disciplines as expected for this interdisciplinary field. The caveats of this type of bibliometric study on a field such as IR are discussed, and plans for more comprehensive approaches are developed.

► A shift in author influence in IR is occurring, mirroring disciplinary changes.
► IJIR is found to be the most cited journal in the past 30 years.
► Many classic texts are still relevant to the field after many decades.
► The disciplinary composition of IR is changing toward business and medicine.
► The top cited IR articles predominantly study interactions involving the US.