Notes

This short piece focuses mostly on technical communication: "Journal publication in technical communication has served and continues to serve as a conduit for ideas of
practitioners and scholars" (1). But the methods described aren't exclusive to a particular field.

"In Lievrouw’s view, maps or patterns of references among publications can suggest a "shape or ’geography’ of scholarship..." (2)

"The work of Christine Borgman suggests that studying scholarly publication can provide an entrance into a discipline’s identity and can become an index of change
in a discipline. She champions bibliometrics as a way to trace and measure disciplinary identity and change" (2).

Rhetorical considerations: "Because bibliometric methods cannot in themselves explain what makes a particular article significant or what role an article played in influencing disciplinary identity. Rhetorical, genre, and discursive analyses are often useful for qualitative analyses" (3).

cites Berkenkotter & Huckin, Swales, Bazerman

"Technical communication scholars who have an interest in the development of technical communication as an academic discipline may choose to examine changes in
technical communication scholarship by examining publication practices in the field" (4).

Thoughts

Mostly, this paper was useful in tipping me to Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics, and the three chapters cited from that book (Lievrouw, Borgman, Griffith). Otherwise, it's basically a call for a certain kind of analysis, a combination of empirical/bibliometric methods with rhetorical/genre awareness.

It may be worth my time to actually contact Allen and see if she's done any of this kind of work. This particular essay provides some theoretical groundwork, but without any sort of demonstration, it's hard to credit claims like those in the abstract:

These cross-disciplinary perspectives provide theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the relationships between journal publication and knowledge production within an academic field. These approaches can aid technical communication scholars and practitioners understand the history of technical communication scholarship and where technical communication scholarship may be headed in the future.

So, it's promising, and connected to what I'm interested in doing, but not quite complete. I'll see if I can dig up those chapters next...