Charting the Rise: Celebrating Two Decades of PSJ’s Impact and International Collaboration

by Geoboo Song (PSJ Editor-in-Chief)

We’ve recently explored over twenty years of PSJ citation data, and we’re thrilled to see its consistent growth over time! A huge thank you to all the remarkable contributors whose relentless dedication and effort have elevated PSJ to its leading status today!

Over time, there’s been a significant increase (both in terms of quantity and proportion) in the number of cited articles, suggesting a clear shift away from uncited ones. This underscores the evolving landscape of scholarly references within the policy community.

The following analysis offers another overview of the PSJ’s citation trends over time. The total citations for the journal have seen a steady increase over the years, with a particularly steep surge since 2019. This highlights the growing impact of the journal in the scholarly community. It is important to note that the self-citation rate has remained consistently low over the years, reflecting a commitment to maintaining the highest standards of scholarly integrity.

It is noteworthy that a high self-citation rate is often seen as a warning sign for journals, and if it exceeds a particular threshold, the journal risks being removed from the SSCI citation reports — an outcome that can have potentially grave consequences for the journal’s reputation and readership. This analysis underscores the impressive trajectory of PSJ in terms of both total citation counts and the maintenance of rigorous scholarly standards.

The following graph illustrates the trend of international collaboration through PSJ publications, measured by the proportion of PSJ articles authored by researchers from multiple countries each year over the past two decades. The collaboration fluctuates over time, but we are undoubtedly heading in the right direction. Of course, it is crucial to foster more international collaboration at PSJ.

Again, none of these achievements could have been realized without your invaluable support and assistance. For this, we deeply appreciate your dedication and effort!