The structure of the Arts & Humanities Citation Index: A mapping on the basis of aggregated citations among 1,157 journals

TL;DR

This study maps the citation-based structure of 1,157 arts and humanities journals using advanced visualization techniques, revealing a roughly twelve-part division that does not align with existing classification systems.

Contribution

It applies citation mapping methods to the arts and humanities, demonstrating the potential to visualize and analyze their cognitive journal structure.

Findings

Identified approximately twelve journal subsets.

Existing classification schemes do not match the citation-based structure.

Visualization techniques reveal complex interrelations among journal groups.

Abstract

Using the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) 2008, we apply mapping techniques previously developed for mapping journal structures in the Science and Social Science Citation Indices. Citation relations among the 110,718 records were aggregated at the level of 1,157 journals specific to the A&HCI, and the journal structures are questioned on whether a cognitive structure can be reconstructed and visualized. Both cosine-normalization (bottom up) and factor analysis (top down) suggest a division into approximately twelve subsets. The relations among these subsets are explored using various visualization techniques. However, we were not able to retrieve this structure using the ISI Subject Categories, including the 25 categories which are specific to the A&HCI. We discuss options for validation such as against the categories of the Humanities Indicators of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the panel structure of the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH), and compare our results with the curriculum organization of the Humanities Section of the College of Letters and Sciences of UCLA as an example of institutional organization.