Mapping and Bibliometric Analysis of American Historical Review Citations and Its Contribution to the Field of History

Abstract

This paper aims to represent the bibliometric characteristics of the American Historical Review (AHR) in an attempt to highlight the journal's contribution to the field of History as one of the leading journals in Journal Citation Reports (JCR). AHR has the highest impact factor among the other journals in its field, and has been bringing together scholars from all over the world since 1895. Although the field of History is known as localized and non-interdisciplinarity, the present study's findings reveal that AHR has different characteristics compared to traditional contributions to the field of History by other journals. In addition, the results show that approximately three quarters of AHR citations, from 67 different categories, are gathered by articles. This indicates that AHR has an increased degree of convergence with other disciplines. These findings may be interpreted as an indication that traditional historical scholarly communication is increasingly changing toward interdisciplinarity. However, it would be problematic to generalize these findings for all history literature, based on a single journal evaluation. This study suggests that AHR has become increasingly diversified and consequently no longer reflects the main characteristics of the field of History. Future studies of more History journals are needed to validate the results and reveal possible changes in the field.