The Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council: A Bibliometric Study

This paper analyzes summative content and citation patterns in the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (ISSN 1559-0151), a peer-reviewed, scholarly publication related to honors education, during its first 20 volumes of existence from 2000 to 2019. The bibliometric study consists of two parts: an analysis of articles and analysis of citations. Quantitative and qualitative measures are used to examine article types, authorship patterns, cited references, and coverage of core subjects. Results indicate 522 articles with an annual output average of 26 .1. Annual input averages 37 .4 authors, featuring 492 unique authors who represent 248 unique institutions and agencies. Collectively, data show an increased emphasis on evidence-based practice, program assessment, and theoretical research, signifying steady decadal development in this area. Predictive factors associated with the growth and general health of scholarly publication also demonstrate marked improvements: an editorial board that has nearly doubled in size, sustained interdisciplinarity (54 fields of study), high degree of collaboration (31%), significant (72%) jump in pagination, and low rate of self-citation (10%). This research involves statistical analyses of written publication and thus aims, in part, to identify and examine trends in honors-related discourse on higher education. Merits, weaknesses, and a complete statistical profile of the journal are provided