Citation Analysis on the Literature Cited in the Studies of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Published in the NPM Quarterly, NPM Research Quarterly, and Taida Journal of Art History

Abstract

This study applies the method of citation analysis to analyze the 13,552 citations and works cited in the 273 research papers on Chinese painting and calligraphy published in the National Palace Museum Quarterly, the National Palace Museum Research Quarterly, and Taida Journal of Art History from 1966 to 2017. It explores those cited works and citations' characteristics such as their types, disciplines, publication eras, citation half-life, publication languages, and tendencies including the most frequently cited books and journals. The research results revealed that ancient books make up the largest proportion of the works cited in the 273 research papers, and modern monographs make up the second largest proportion of those cited works. Art is the discipline that most of the ancient and modern books cited come from; the discipline of language and literature and that of Chinese history and geography have the second and the third most ancient and modern books cited. More than half of the works cited of ancient and modern books are not from the discipline of Art. The publication eras of the works cited covers a wide range; both ancient and modern works are covered. Concerning the cited works published in the modern era, the number of the works that were cited after six to ten years since their publication is the highest. More than 80 percent of the works cited of modern publications were cited within one to 30 years since their publication, and thus the problem of literature obsolescence is not obvious. The citation half-life is 13.8 years. In the 273 papers, the number of works cited in Chinese is the highest; however, many of the most frequently cited modern books and journals are publications in English. This result also revealed that the research field of Chinese painting and calligraphy does not rely solely on literatures in Chinese. More than 70 percent of ancient and modern books cited in the 273 papers were cited only once. There are 32 titles of ancient books, 48 titles of modern books, and 24 titles of journals that are most frequently cited. Taida Journal of Art History has the lowest journal self-citation rate.