WHATS IN A NAME - BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF 40 YEARS OF THE JOURNAL-OF-BROADCASTING (AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA)

This study analyzed citation data involving a ''core'' set of 17 commu nication journals from 1977 through 1993, measures of the Journal of B roadcasting & Electronic Media's influence within the communication di scipline, most frequently cited author and publication data collected from the Social Science Citation Index, a citation matrix hand-culled from 27 communication journals in 1990, the semantic patterns of words in the titles of all the articles from the past 40 years, and the sem antic relationships among the topic categories assigned to those artic les. Special attention was paid to the periods of time preceding and f ollowing the Journal's 1985 change in title and mission. These analyse s reveal shifts in the patterns of citations, article title words, and topics. While the editorial board was correct in its assessment that the Journal of Broadcasting did not accurately reflect the research of the prior few years, the journal continues to be a cohesive whole in thematic content, impact, and standing in the network of communication journals.