{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]],"date-time":"2025-09-23T13:08:18Z","timestamp":1758632898646,"version":"3.40.5"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MIT Press","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":["www.mitpressjournals.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Quantitative Science Studies"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The publication of special issues constitute an important yet underinvestigated phenomenon of scholarly communication. In an attempt to draw attention to the proliferation of special issues, Priem (2006) suggested that their commissioning has an underestimated opportunity cost, given the relative scarcity of publication space: by distorting the \u201cmarketplace for ideas\u201d through the commanding of preselected topical distributions, special issues undermine the total research output by \u201csqueezing out\u201d high-quality but topically unrelated articles. The present paper attempts to test this hypothesis by providing a topicality and research impact analysis of conference-based, monographic, and regular issues published between 2010 and 2015 inclusive and indexed in Clarivate Analytics\u2019 Web of Science. The results show that the titles and abstracts of articles copublished are topically closer to each other than those copublished in regular issues, which suggests that their relative importance might influence the total topical distribution. However, disciplinary and overall comparison of relative citations for both special and regular issues shows that intraissue averages and variances in the former case are respectively higher and lower than in the regular issue context, which undermines not only the abovementioned hypothesis, but also the belief that editors often \u201cfill up\u201d special issues by accepting substandard papers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/qss_a_00009","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,11]],"date-time":"2019-10-11T18:17:53Z","timestamp":1570817873000},"page":"303-319","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["On the topicality and research impact of special issues"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"1","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0760-0290","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Maxime","family":"Sainte-Marie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Canada Research Chair on the Tranformations of Scholarly Communication, \u00c9cole de biblioth\u00e9conomie et des sciences de l\u2019information, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, Canada"},{"name":"Bureau des iniatives num\u00e9riques, Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur la Science et la Technologie (CIRST), Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al, Canada"},{"name":"Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University, Denmark"},{"name":"\u00c9cole de biblioth\u00e9conomie et des sciences de l\u2019information, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1021-059X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Philippe","family":"Mongeon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University, Denmark"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2733-0689","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Vincent","family":"Larivi\u00e8re","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Canada Research Chair on the Tranformations of Scholarly Communication, \u00c9cole de biblioth\u00e9conomie et des sciences de l\u2019information, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, Canada"},{"name":"Observatoire des Sciences et des Technologies (OST), Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur la Science et la Technologie (CIRST), Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al, Canada"},{"name":"\u00c9cole de biblioth\u00e9conomie et des sciences de l\u2019information, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al"}]}],"member":"281","reference":[{"key":"bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1162\/coli_a_00016"},{"key":"bib2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"364","DOI":"10.1080\/01621459.1974.10482955","volume":"69","author":"Brown M.","year":"1974","journal-title":"Journal of the American Statistical Association"},{"key":"bib3","first-page":"161","volume-title":"Proceedings of SDAIR-94, 3rd Annual Symposium on Document Analysis and Information Retrieval","author":"Cavnar W. B.","year":"1994"},{"issue":"14","key":"bib4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6909","DOI":"10.1080\/03610926.2016.1139135","volume":"46","author":"Cheng C.","year":"2016","journal-title":"Communications in Statistics \u2013 Theory and Methods"},{"issue":"5","key":"bib5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"857","DOI":"10.5465\/amj.2006.22798160","volume":"49","author":"Conlon D. E.","year":"2006","journal-title":"Academy of Management Journal"},{"key":"bib6","volume-title":"The future of the academic journal","author":"Cope B.","year":"2014","edition":"2"},{"issue":"2","key":"bib7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1080\/17521740903336621","volume":"5","author":"Cross J.","year":"2009","journal-title":"Editors\u2019 Bulletin"},{"issue":"4","key":"bib8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"316","DOI":"10.1080\/00031305.1990.10475751","volume":"44","author":"D\u2019Agostino R.","year":"1990","journal-title":"The American Statistician"},{"key":"bib9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"843","DOI":"10.1126\/science.267.5199.843","volume":"267","author":"Damashek M.","year":"1995","journal-title":"Science"},{"issue":"2","key":"bib10","first-page":"36","volume":"13","author":"Derrick B.","year":"2018","journal-title":"Journal of Applied Quantitative Methods"},{"issue":"2","key":"bib11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1053","DOI":"10.1214\/aos\/1176348137","volume":"19","author":"Di Ciccio T.","year":"1991","journal-title":"The Annals of Statistics"},{"issue":"3","key":"bib12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"901","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1468-2478.2010.00617.x","volume":"54","author":"Eden L.","year":"2010","journal-title":"International Studies Quarterly"},{"volume-title":"Genesis and development of a scientific fact","year":"2012","author":"Fleck L.","key":"bib13"},{"volume-title":"Conceptual Spaces: The geometry of thought","year":"2004","author":"G\u00e4rdenfors P.","key":"bib14"},{"key":"bib15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/9629.001.0001","volume-title":"The geometry of meaning: Semantics based on conceptual spaces","author":"G\u00e4rdenfors P.","year":"2014"},{"key":"bib16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109","DOI":"10.2307\/1403462","volume":"58","author":"Hall P.","year":"1990","journal-title":"International Statistical Review"},{"key":"bib17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"403","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00050845","volume":"48","author":"Hall P.","year":"1996","journal-title":"Annals of the Institute of the Statistical Mathematics"},{"issue":"7309","key":"bib18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"391","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.323.7309.391","volume":"323","author":"Hart A.","year":"2001","journal-title":"British Medical Journal"},{"volume-title":"Special issues: What are they good for? Eco-Evo Evo-Eco: Academic musing by Hendry, Bolnick, and awesome guests","year":"2016","author":"Hendry A.","key":"bib19"},{"key":"bib20","first-page":"141","volume":"17","author":"Hendry A.","year":"2016","journal-title":"Evolutionary Ecology Research"},{"issue":"11","key":"bib21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1776","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.20888","volume":"59","author":"Lis\u00e9e C.","year":"2008","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"key":"bib22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1214\/aoms\/1177730491","volume":"18","author":"Mann H.","year":"1947","journal-title":"Annals of Mathematical Statistics"},{"issue":"3","key":"bib23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"240","DOI":"10.1177\/1056492607302415","volume":"16","author":"McKinley W.","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Management Inquiry"},{"issue":"1","key":"bib24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"73","DOI":"10.1023\/B:INRT.0000009441.78971.be","volume":"7","author":"McNamee P.","year":"2004","journal-title":"Information Retrieval"},{"issue":"4","key":"bib25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"389","DOI":"10.1177\/1056492606294639","volume":"15","author":"Mowday R. T.","year":"2006","journal-title":"Journal of Management Inquiry"},{"issue":"3","key":"bib26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"250","DOI":"10.1177\/1056492607302414","volume":"16","author":"Mowday R. T.","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Management Inquiry"},{"issue":"1","key":"bib27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.20982\/tqmp.04.1.p013","volume":"4","author":"Nachar N.","year":"2008","journal-title":"Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology"},{"volume-title":"Science and Engineering Indicators. Chapter 5: Academic Research and Development. Dataand Terminology","year":"2006","author":"National Science Foundation","key":"bib46"},{"issue":"1","key":"bib28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.1030.0055","volume":"15","author":"Olk P.","year":"2004","journal-title":"Organization Science"},{"key":"bib29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"237","DOI":"10.1093\/biomet\/75.2.237","volume":"75","author":"Owen A.","year":"1988","journal-title":"Biometrika"},{"key":"bib30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"90","DOI":"10.1214\/aos\/1176347494","volume":"18","author":"Owen A.","year":"1990","journal-title":"The Annals of Statistics"},{"key":"bib31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1201\/9781420036152","volume-title":"Empirical likelihood","author":"Owen A.","year":"2001"},{"issue":"4","key":"bib32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"383","DOI":"10.1177\/1056492606294525","volume":"15","author":"Priem R. L.","year":"2006","journal-title":"Journal of Management Inquiry"},{"issue":"3","key":"bib33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"246","DOI":"10.1177\/1056492607302413","volume":"16","author":"Priem R. L.","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Management Inquiry"},{"key":"bib34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"535","DOI":"10.5465\/amj.2003.11576703","volume":"46","author":"Rynes S.","year":"2003","journal-title":"Academy of Management Journal"},{"key":"bib35","unstructured":"Sahlgren, M. (2006). The word-space model: Using distributional analysis to represent syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between words in high-dimensional vector spaces (Unpublished doctoral dissertation)."},{"issue":"2","key":"bib36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1069","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-017-2372-4","volume":"112","author":"Sala F. G.","year":"2017","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"key":"bib37","first-page":"895","volume-title":"Advances in neural information processing systems","volume":"5","author":"Sch\u00fctze H.","year":"1993"},{"issue":"3","key":"bib38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"305","DOI":"10.1080\/15228916.2011.620919","volume":"12","author":"Sigu\u00e9 S.","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal of African Business"},{"key":"bib39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1215","DOI":"10.1214\/009053604000000337","volume":"32","author":"Tsao M.","year":"2004","journal-title":"The Annals of Statistics"},{"key":"bib40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"141","DOI":"10.1613\/jair.2934","volume":"37","author":"Turney P. D.","year":"2010","journal-title":"Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research"},{"volume-title":"Estimation of confidence intervals for the mean of heavy tailed loss distributions: A comparative study using a simulation method","year":"2009","author":"Tursunalieva A.","key":"bib41"},{"issue":"1","key":"bib42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1108\/JD-05-2018-0067","volume":"75","author":"Wakeling S.","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journal of Documentation"},{"issue":"3","key":"bib43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"851","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-012-0775-9","volume":"94","author":"Wang J.","year":"2013","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"issue":"1","key":"bib44","first-page":"28","volume":"34","author":"Welch B.","year":"1947","journal-title":"Biometrika"},{"key":"bib45","volume-title":"Geometry and meaning","volume":"773","author":"Widdows D.","year":"2004"}],"container-title":["Quantitative Science Studies"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mitpressjournals.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1162\/qss_a_00009","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,24]],"date-time":"2024-07-24T22:29:55Z","timestamp":1721860195000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/qss\/article\/1\/1\/303-319\/15561"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1162\/qss_a_00009"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/qss_a_00009","relation":{},"ISSN":["2641-3337"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2641-3337"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2019-04-24","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2019-08-26","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2020-02-20","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}