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The evolution of conceptual diversity in economics titles from 1890 to 2012

Author

Listed:
  • Shesen Guo

    (Hangzhou Normal University)

  • Ganzhou Zhang

    (Hangzhou Normal University)

  • Qiuhong Ju

    (Hangzhou Normal University)

  • Yu Chen

    (Hangzhou Normal University)

  • Qianfeng Chen

    (Hangzhou Normal University)

  • Lulu Li

    (Hangzhou Normal University)

Abstract

Using bibliometric techniques, this work investigates the evolution of titles in economics research. It attempts to present a complete and accurate picture of systematic changes in the average character number, syllable number, word number and conceptual diversity in the titles over a long period of time. Based on a total of 338,866 academic paper titles in economics published between 1890 and 2012 from the EconLit and the Web of Knowledge, the economics titles were analyzed from the perspectives of social network, computational phonetics and conceptual diversity. The results showed that in the evolution of this discipline, authors were using increasingly more words for their paper titles and the conceptual diversity in paper titles underwent interesting periodic fluctuations over more than 100 years. The 1970s was a decade that achieved special prominence in conceptual diversity and relational complexity of titles.

Suggested Citation

  • Shesen Guo & Ganzhou Zhang & Qiuhong Ju & Yu Chen & Qianfeng Chen & Lulu Li, 2015. "The evolution of conceptual diversity in economics titles from 1890 to 2012," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 2073-2088, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:102:y:2015:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-014-1501-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-014-1501-6
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthias Gnewuch & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2017. "Title characteristics and citations in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1573-1578, March.
    2. Florentin Gloetzl & Ernest Aigner, 2015. "Pluralism in the Market of Science? A citation network analysis of economic research at universities in Vienna," Ecological Economics Papers ieep5, Institute of Ecological Economics.
    3. Mike Thelwall, 2017. "Avoiding obscure topics and generalising findings produces higher impact research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(1), pages 307-320, January.
    4. Zhijun LI & Jinfen XU, 2019. "The evolution of research article titles: the case of Journal of Pragmatics 1978–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1619-1634, December.
    5. Fu-Sheng Tsai & Chin-Chiung Kuo & Julia L. Lin, 2020. "Knowledge Heterogenization of the Franchising Literature Applying Transaction Cost Economics," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-27, November.
    6. Gianna Kexin Jiang & Yajun Jiang, 2023. "More diversity, more complexity, but more flexibility: research article titles in TESOL Quarterly, 1967–2022," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 3959-3980, July.
    7. Xuechun Xiang & Jing Li, 2020. "A diachronic comparative study of research article titles in linguistics and literature journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 847-866, February.

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