Scholarly Influence and Prestige in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Abstract

This paper introduces the special issue on scholarly influence and prestige in criminology and criminal justice. Citation analysis is based upon the belief that a scholar, published work, journal, or academic department that is highly cited is more influential than one that is rarely or never cited. Although there are many objections, citation counts are highly correlated with other measures of scholarly influence. Publication productivity studies assume that scholars who publish more works have more influence and prestige than those who publish fewer works. Publication counts are highly correlated with citation counts. The articles in this special issue focus primarily on publication analysis and greatly advance knowledge about this topic in the field of criminology and criminal justice.