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Methodology

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Most Influential Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1986-2020

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Criminology ((BRIEFSCRIMINOL))

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Abstract

This chapter describes the methodology that we have used in our citation analysis research. We go into detail regarding the main sources of citation data, including the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, and review the limitations of each, before emphasizing our decision to examine reference lists of journal articles. The selection of the specific journals that we studied is the first step in our research process and we explain how we selected first the four English language journals and later the six American journals. We also explain why some prestigious journals had to be excluded from our research. Because of our concern that the limited number of journals studied might create a bias against scholars who do not publish in these specific journals, we later decided to investigate the most-cited scholars in a much larger number of journals, and this chapter includes a description of how we selected these additional journals. The chapter then proceeds to explain how we obtained the citation data, the process of editing and cross-checking the data, and how the citations were counted, excluding self-citations. A detailed description of the many attempts to ensure accuracy is also included. We conclude by reviewing some of the strengths and limitations of our methodology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Ellen G. Cohn

  2. Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    David P. Farrington

  3. Research and Evidence Directorate, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Guy C. M. Skinner

Authors
  1. Ellen G. Cohn
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  2. David P. Farrington
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  3. Guy C. M. Skinner
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Correspondence to Ellen G. Cohn .

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Cohn, E.G., Farrington, D.P., Skinner, G.C.M. (2023). Methodology. In: Most Influential Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1986-2020. SpringerBriefs in Criminology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23596-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23596-2_2

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