Legends of the Field: Influential Scholars in Multicultural Counseling

Abstract

This study identified the most frequently cited scholars across 28 leading multicultural textbooks used in the training of counselors and counseling psychologists. Four spheres or clusters of multicultural scholars were identified and were characterized, respectively, as having either a profound, highly significant, significant, or important impact on the academic multicultural training of counseling graduate students. The top-cited scholars across the textbooks were also examined in relation to their scholarly productivity (number of publications) and their impact (number of citations) in peer-reviewed journals. Specifically, multicultural scholars were assessed on the delta-beta coefficient, Scopus and PsycINFO publications count, Scopus citations, and the increasingly popular h-index of scientific impact. Limitations of the study and implications of the findings for counseling training were highlighted.