An Exploratory Analysis of the Scholarly Productivity of North American Based Sport Sociologists

Abstract

This study identified 100 North American based authors who have contributed 658 publications to the sociology of sport literature during the past decade. An analysis of the productivity patterns of these authors produced a perfect Bradford Distribution comprising ten core authors having fifteen or more publications each and accounting for over forty percent of all published work surveyed.In conclusion, findings of this study: 1. Provide insight into the emergence and development of sport sociology in North America, and raise several implications regarding its future growth, especially with respect to the problem of adequate critical mass. 2. Suggest that the literature related to the sociology of sport in North America provides an adequate data set for testing Brookes' formulation of Bradford's Law relating to journal distribution and author productivity.3. Suggest the need, rationale and method for conducting comparative studies of the productivity patterns of authors and periodicals in the speciality of sport sociology in other areas of the world and, 4. Demonstrates the importance of identifying key authors and publications in the sociology of sport for purposes of comprehensive bibliographical searches.

An Atlantic divide? Mapping the knowledge domain of European and North American-based sociology of sport, 2008–2018

“…Significant interactive impact on both sides of the Atlantic exists, as many UK-born (sport) sociologists have contributed to the development of the subject in North America, such as Donnelly, Andrews, Carrington, Young and Silk; and many North America-based researchers have extensive professional and personal connections with UK scholars. Loy (1979) previously argued that sociology of sport studies need to confront barriers, including institution and industry formatting. Concerning critical masses, findings here suggest Europe’s scholars (including Maguire, Bairner, Giulianotti and Malcolm at Loughborough University) and numerous North America-based scholars continue to be particularly influential in research landscape in recent years (including scholars from Australia and New Zealand).…”

“…Echoing Loy (1979), and adding to Dart (2014) and Seippel (2018), this study offers a new lens into the ‘state-of-the-field’ in the sociology of sport knowledge domain. With a geographically comparative perspective, the citation-analysis-expanded approach and software help us visualise to descriptively explore potential institutions and research directions, concerning critical mass, landmark publications, hot topics, high/bursting co-citation and major clusters influencing the sociology of sport knowledge domain.…”

“…Nevertheless, most previous state-of-the-art reviews not only present subjective selection, but also feature particular impressionistic assessments (Malcolm, 2012, 2014). Presenting a relatively objective, quantitative, empirical assessment on the field, Loy (1979) bibliometrically analysed productivity patterns of 100 North America-based contributors and considered that the subfield confronts a lack of ‘critical masses’. He suggested that further studies should revolve more on publication quality ‘by employing various methods of citation analysis’ (Loy, 1979: 111).…”

“…Presenting a relatively objective, quantitative, empirical assessment on the field, Loy (1979) bibliometrically analysed productivity patterns of 100 North America-based contributors and considered that the subfield confronts a lack of ‘critical masses’. He suggested that further studies should revolve more on publication quality ‘by employing various methods of citation analysis’ (Loy, 1979: 111). Other contributors analysed sociology of sport articles published in International Review for the Sociology of Sport ( IRSS ), Journal of Sport and Social Issues ( JSSI ) and/or Sociology of Sport Journal ( SSJ ) using content analysis (e.g.…”

Autoría institucional de los trabajos publicados en revistas españolas de ciencias del deporte (1999-2005). (Institutional authorship of the papers published in Spanish journals of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences)

“…Aunque la producción científica de las Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte (CCAFD) o de alguna de sus disciplinas ha sido objeto de análisis en distintos trabajos (Calatayud y Balaguer, 2000;Loy, 1979;Pérez, 2007;Silverman y Skonie, 1997;Thompson, 1996;Ward y Ko, 2006), la contribución de las instituciones apenas ha sido estudiada. En el ámbito español, tan sólo Gusi y Rodríguez (1995) analizaron la participación de las instituciones en proyectos de investigación desarrollados en Cataluña.…”