Background/Purpose: Citation frequency is commonly used as an indicator of journal article quality (Patterson & Harris, 2009). This study examined aspects of citation frequency in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education (JTPE).
Method: JTPE articles published from 1981 to 2010 were analyzed (N=775) in relation to title, year of publication, and number of authors. Each article was further examined through Google Scholar to identify the number of times the JTPE article had been cited.
Analysis/Results: Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, independent t-tests, and a MANOVA. JTPE articles were cited on average 1.5 times per year, and 10.8% (n=84) of articles published in JTPE were not cited anywhere. A substantial increase in the number of multiple author articles occurred from the 1980s to the 1990s, and then another significant (p<.05) increase in the number of multiple authors from the 1990s to the 2000s. No correlation was found between the number of authors on an article and the number of citations per year. Significant (p<.05) differences were found between citations per year for single and co-authored publications in both t-tests and MANOVA.
Conclusions: There was an increase in multi-authored articles throughout the lifespan of JTPE; however, the number of citations per year did not increase. This finding suggests that quality, defined as the number of citations that article received per year, did not appear to be related to the number of authors on the paper. In addition, the number of articles published never cited within JTPE was unanticipated.
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