Under the Influence? Intellectual Exchange in Political Science

In: PS: political science & politics, Band 41, Heft 2, S. 375-378

Abstract

Intellectual exchange is central to progress in any discipline,
including political science. The transfer of knowledge, ideas, and
techniques takes place in many forums (e.g., advisor-student
meetings, conferences, department lounges) and it is no simple task
to systematically identify or quantify this interchange. In general
though, the fruition of a successful or insightful idea is a
published journal article or book. The way in which the author(s) of
a published piece of work acknowledges previous or contemporary work
that contributed to its development is via references or citations.
Thus, while we cannot easily keep track of the
entire process of intellectual exchange that
leads to publication, citations inform us of other (usually
published) work that influenced and contributed to the articles and
books that make up the research output of the field. We thank two anonymous referees for helpful
comments on content and structure.