Another day, another use for bibliometric analysis. I was recently at a conference where the editor of AMJ strongly recommended to read the mission statement of a journal before submitting; hitting the target is key to get it considered, and published.
There is no doubt this is important. However, some of these mission statements are a little fuzzy on the concrete topics they tend to favour. One way to see what topics are most relevant, is to look at what has actually been published in past issues. A Co-occurrence analysis of keywords can then give a map, of what keywords are researched, and how they are done so in relation to each other.
I have done so for five journals, ranked as 4* in the ABS list, namely:
- Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP)
- Academy of Management Journal (AMJ)
- Organizational Science (OrgSci)
- Journal of Management (JoM)
- Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS)
..from 2009 to July 2018.
While all maps are dominated by the keyword: “performance”, the maps show different topics, though at times subtle differences, others, such as the contrast between JIBS and JAP. As for the unit of analysis, it seems that JIBS is focused on topics at the international organizational unit of analysis, OrgSci at the organizational and unit level, and JAP at the individual level of analysis.
Before submitting an article, it may be worth the minutes it takes to map the journal and see 1) how prominent the keywords that match your is in the map; and 2) possible ways to position your study to make it as relevant as possible.
JIBS Keywords
Top Keywords by cluster in JIBS*
| Cluster 1 | Cluster 2 | Cluster 3 | Cluster 4 | Cluster 5 |
| Multinational-enterprise | Determinants | Competitive advantage | Cultural distance | Entry mode |
| Firm | Institutional environment | Institutional theory | International-business | Joint ventures |
| Knowledge | Governance | Knowledge transfer | Distance | International joint ventures |
| Research-and-development | Emerging markets | Resource-based view | Entry mode choice | Strategic alliances |
| Innovation | Ownership | Strategy | Diversity | Direct-investment |
JAP Keywords
Top Keywords by cluster in JAP*
| Cluster 1 | Cluster 2 | Cluster 3 | Cluster 4 | Cluster 5 |
| Job-performance | Decision-making | Leadership | Performance | Job-satisfaction |
| Personality | Satisfaction | Transformational leadership | Behavior | Commitment |
| Motivation | Task-performance | Organizations | Consequences | Turnover |
| Individual-differences | Self-regulation | Teams | Perspective | Job satisfaction |
| Self-efficacy | Conflict | Multilevel | Power | Organizational commitment |
| Job performance | Stress | Transactional leadership | Attitudes | Employee turnover |
AMJ Keywords
Org.Sci. Keywords
* Please contact me for more information on how these were extracted and ranked; the process is part of so-far unpublished research.