Citation Analysis of Student Dissertations and Faculty Publications in Reading and Educational Leadership at Oakland University

This study examines bibliographies of student dissertations and faculty publications in the fields of reading and educational leadership to determine the types of items that were cited during preweb (1983–1990), emergent (1991–1998), and post-web (1999–2014) time periods. Cited items were examined for the following characteristics: format such as books, journal articles, technical reports, etc.; citation age; and scholarliness of journal articles as determined by impact factor. Seventy-five student dissertations as well as 63 faculty articles written between 1983 and 2014 were inspected, resulting in a total of 11,082 cited items. Results indicate that over all time periods students cited a diverse set of materials including journal articles, monographs, technical reports, and dissertations while faculty cited primarily journal articles and monographs. Moreover, students lean toward citing journals with a lower impact factor than faculty who generally cited journals with a medium or high impact factor. Additionally, the average citation age found in students' bibliographies was 12.4 years while the average citation age for faculty publications was 9.6 years. Cited items exhibited a continuously longer citation age from pre-web, through emergent, to post-web years.