Nordic Impact: Article Productivity and Citation Patterns in Sixteen Nordic Sociology Departments

The sociology departments in the Nordic countries provide the institutional platform for Nordic Sociology and for the Nordic national sociological associations that form the Scandinavian Sociological Association. This paper focuses on journal articles produced by current (as of 1 January 2001) faculty of 16 of these Nordic Sociology departments in the period 1981-2000. First, we provide a brief overview of article productivity and citations to articles produced in this period by country and department. Second, we estimate a multilevel model of citation patterns by articles published, the academic position and productivity of each author, and the structure and productivity of each department as a whole. Third, we test the extent to which the effects of such factors differ between departments and individuals. In all departments, publications in high-impact journals increase the number of citations to any given article, to other work of the same author, and to the work of other faculty in the department. The effect of publishing in high-impact journals differs significantly between individual authors, and work in certain types of journals yields more citations than the journal impact factor would predict. We argue that departmental affiliations with outside faculty and departmental productivity can be seen as a form of social capital that benefits both individuals and departments as a whole. These findings strongly suggest that diversity is a defining characteristic of this sociological community, precluding monolithic definitions of Nordic sociology.