Most-Cited Scholars in 20 Journals

Abstract

This chapter focuses on our third stream of research, which examines a total of 20 journals published in the year 2020, including five American criminology journals, five American criminal justice journals, five international criminology journals, and five international criminal justice journals. We begin by presenting key 2020 statistics for the 20 journals individually, as well as for each group of five journals, and then we present the five most-cited scholars in each journal. We explain how we created a combined measure of influence based on all journals that gives each journal equal weight. This allows us to merge groups of journals to identify the most-cited scholars in groups of five journals and in groups of ten journals (ten criminology journals, ten criminal justice journals, ten American journals, and ten international journals). Finally, we present a list of the most-cited scholars in all 20 journals combined and identify the most-cited works of the ten most-cited scholars. For all groups of journals, the comparative rankings of these scholars in the six previous years that we studied (at five-year intervals from 1990) are also included, so that citations are documented over a 30-year period. We also compare the most-cited scholars in these 20 journals over one year with the results from nine journals over five years and identify similarities and differences. Finally, we use concepts developed in criminal career research, examining the prevalence, frequency, specialization and versatility of the ten most-cited scholars in 2020.