are by looking at who is co-cited with whom. Meara (2012) looked at
research literature on vocabulary acquisition in 2006. The analysis of 101
authors who were co-cited reveals that there were two clusters; a psycho-
linguistic one dominated by de Groot, Kroll and Green, and a mainstream
vocabulary cluster dominated by Nation and Laufer. The data suggest that
co-citation analysis may be useful to track changes in a discipline over time.
Meara (2014) reports on a co-citation analysis of 201 articles on vocabulary
acquisition that appeared inThe Modern Language Journalbetween 1916 and
- The data from the earlier decades appeared to be hard to interpret since
citation habits and journal article formats were different from present ones.
But the analysis showed how the main research topics change over time,
with sometimes little overlap between decades. More recent data (Meara p.c.)
on changes over time in the journalApplied Linguisticsprovided additional
evidence on changes in thefield. Co-citation data may allow us to see what
clusters there are in ourfield and then check to what extent the clusters found
coincide with professional perceptions. This type of analysis may provide
information on the leaders in thefield and the possibility offinding different
research areas with their own leaders. The data for co-citation are available
in GS, but need to be adapted for the types of analysis Meara has done.
9.12 Conclusion
In this chapter information was provided on the use of citation analysis for
publications in AL books and journals. Two measures have been used to
Table 9.5Impact factors of the top six AL journals 1995– 2013
Journal AL BLC LL SSLA TQ MLJ
2013 1.833 1.907 1.433 2.051 1.000 1.181
2012 1.500 2.229 1.318 1.800 0.792 1.114
2011 1.885 1.714 1.218 1.111 0.969 1.299
2010 1.340 1.691 1.494 1.571 0.646 1.328
2009 1.469 1.636 0.984 1.323 0.942 1.914
2008 2.217 2.049 1.545 2.094 0.972 1.044
2007 1.178 0.756 0.417 1.485 – 0.793
2006 1.050 – 0.714 2.417 0.393 1.145
2005 1.029 – 0.976 – 0.700 1.188
2004 0.829 – 0.851 ––0.750
2003 1.026 – 0.680 – 1.000 0.438
2002 0.650 – 0.581 – 0.673 0.367
2001 0.795 – 0.682 – 0.508 1.042
2000 0.692 – 0.340 – 0.806 0.918
1999 0.590 – 0.410 – 0.938 0.882
1998 0.500 – 0.541 – 0.983 0.980
1997 0.889 – 0.385 – 1.391 0.765
1996 0.625
1995 0.581
118 The citation game