A Golden Decade. Exploring Internationalization in Nordic Communication Research

Abstract

The five countries of the Nordic region have a common cultural and historical background. In the field of communication, they share institutions, conferences, publications and net works. In order to reveal how this shared tradition is manifested in scientific communication, the present text analyses the evolution of publication patterns of Nordic communica - tion scholars by applying bibliometric techniques to over five hundred articles published in international scientific journals from 2001 to 2010. Different parameters were analysed: institution and country of origin, number of authors, typology of collaborations, topics studied and the level of specialization. During the decade under study, the presence of Nordic scholars in international journals doubled, manifesting the growing internationalization of Nordic communication research. Co-authorship patterns predominantly involve collaboration with Anglo-Saxon scholars, particularly North American. A high level of specialization was found in areas such as technologies and new media, which was reflected in the journals chosen as vehicles for publication.