Opening the Black Box of Citations: A Qualitative Analysis on the Basis of the Taxonomy of Erikson and Erlandson

Abstract

Abstract Over recent years, citation practice has become progressively more pertinent to academic production, a relevance that poses the challenge of addressing this object of study not only from a quantitative perspective, but also using qualitative approaches. On the basis of these premises, the aim of this article is to analyze, from a qualitative perspective, the literature on communication for development and social change (CDSC) published in the top 10 communication journals in Spain. To this end, a qualitative analysis of the most frequently cited papers on this topic was performed on the basis of the citation categories suggested by M. G. Erikson and P. A. Erlandson (2014), as well as the implications and consequences of their widespread use. The conclusions of this article point to the predominance of citations that, in many cases, reveal a disturbing disregard for the cited works and a general lack of scholarly debate between authors and conflicting paradigms.