A Programmatic Approach to Journal Use and Citation Analysis

The study explores journal citations from 104 doctoral dissertations in sociology from 2010 to 2021 at the Pennsylvania State University. A citation analysis of 10,395 journal citations explores journal use from three graduate degree programs in sociology. Journal use is based on the top 32 journals for concentration of citations (CitRank), number of dissertations citing the journal (DissRank), and the average (CDRank). Forty journals are identified from 38 dissertations (degree in sociology), 40 journals from 57 dissertations (dual degree for sociology and demography), 34 journals from nine dissertations (dual degree for sociology and criminology), and 41 journals from 104 dissertations. An analysis of variance and correlation is conducted to determine the strength of the relationship of the three measures of use. The study identifies 71 unique journal titles from all degree programs and a core of 13 journals.