Introduction
The future of all publishing is open to question, and this is especially true in the
case of psychoanalytic publishing. Stepansky (2009) has explored the future of psychoanalytic
publishing with a particular emphasis upon how the digital era has had an impact upon
the decline of scholarly publication in the United States. If this trend continues,
the survival of contemporary psychoanalytic research will depend upon its capacity
to embrace and utilize digital publishing.
Echoing this perspective, we tried to determine whether the seemingly small international
visibility of contemporary French psychoanalytic research could be related to its
lack of acknowledgment of the impact of digitalization on rules of writing and publishing.
We believe that achieving visibility doesn't chiefly depend on overcoming a language
barrier (not such an issue for younger generations), cultural differences, or geographical
distance (made irrelevant by the Internet). Rather, our intuition is that French psychoanalytic
work would become more visible if it demonstrated familiarity with psychoanalytic
work in English, citing it and engaging in dialogue.
Anglo-American psychoanalytic publications follow a specific rule of digitalized,
database-anchored research. This rule is that the bibliometric value of a journal,
which largely conditions its academic visibility and value, depends on the algorithmic
measure of the number and type of cites that it receives from published articles published.
(This is the case, in different ways, with the commonest algorithms: Thomson's Impact
Factor and SCImago's Journal and Country Rank.) In other words, the algorithmic measure
of this value ultimately depends on whether and how researchers cite a given journal—these
citation practices will then, in turn, make it a more desirable publishing venue.
The bottom line is that citations have a real effect, as they directly contributing
to the space of academic publishing by differentiating journals both numerically and
hierarchically.
It is plausible to imagine that an increase in the number of Anglo-American journal
citations in French journals would be likely to produce a rise in international visibility
for French journals. Of course, this is speculative and cannot (yet) be put to test.
Let us begin with a preliminary effort: to draw on an original database in order (a)
to determine whether French psychoanalytic productions are visible internationally,
and (b) to clarify the citation practices comparatively between the French and Anglo-American
contexts. To the best of our knowledge, this issue has not been addressed so far;
in providing preliminary data and reflections, our hope is modest: to inspire discussion
and debate.
To that end, we first measure the citational visibility of French vs. Anglo-American
psychoanalytic journals across all disciplines and languages (their respective global
outreach); we then relate this outreach measure to a geographic breakdown of psychoanalytic
article citations, in order to make sense of specific geographical differences in
citation practices.
Methods
One of us (RP) put together a dedicated database, which is the first result of this
research. This database draws on the data available in Elsevier's Scopus database,
which indexes the highest number of Social Science and Humanities journals.
The first step was to establish a corpus of psychoanalytic journals, selected through
content analysis. All of these journals refer to psychoanalysis either exclusively
or significantly (by publishing psychoanalysis-oriented papers relevant to the fields
of psychiatry and/or psychology). They have similar editorial processes and publishing
circuits (e.g. non-open access); and their language is that of the publishing body's
country (they are not bilingual). Being indexed in Scopus, they all have an SJR metrics.
The list of selected journals is the following:
13 French journals: Annales Médico-Psychologiques, Cliniques Méditerranéennes, Enfances
et Psy, Essaim, Evolution Psychiatrique, Figures de la Psychanalyse, Imaginaire et
Inconscient, Information Psychiatrique, Psychiatrie de l'Enfant, Revue de Psychothérapie
Psychanalytique de Groupe, Revue Française de Psychanalyse, Savoirs et Clinique, Topique.
20 Anglo-American Journals: American Imago, American Journal of Psychoanalysis, British
Journal of Psychotherapy, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, International Forum of Psychoanalysis,
International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic
Association, Journal of Analytical Psychology, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic
Dialogues, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Psychoanalytic Psychology,
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Psychoanalytic Review, Psychoanalytic
Social Work, Psychodynamic Practice, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Psychodynamic
Psychiatry.
RP has collected the whole bibliometric data of this corpus of 33 journals (13 + 20)
over the last 15 publication years (2000–2015).
The database variables are, for each journal over this period: SJR per year, number
of article citations per year, number of cited articles, number of published citable
articles per year, number of non-cited articles per year, country of origin of cites.
For Table 1, we started from the number of documents, the number of citations and
the number of non-cited documents, and just calculated the percentage.
Table 1
Ratio of citation and non-citation per psychoanalytic article depending on its geographic
origin.
Cites/documents ratio, 2000-2015
Total of cites
Total of documents
Ratio
French journals
12935
11370
1,14
Anglo-American journals
127727
12540
10,6
Percentage of non-cited documents by origin, 2000-2015
Total of non-cited documents
Total of documents
Ratio
French journals
8018
11370
70,52
Anglo-American journals
5342
12540
41,995
For Table 2, starting from the number of articles that cite each journal (with their
geographic origin), we added the numbers and then calculated the percentage.
Table 2
Breakdown of article citation ratios in French vs. Anglo-American journals of all
disciplines.
Percentage of cites by origin, 2000–2015
Total of articles cites
Cited by French journals
Cited by Anglo-American journals
French journals
6812
66,23% (n = 4512)
5,66% (n = 386)
Anglo-American journals
28204
1,20% (n = 339)
63,08% (n = 17791)
Results
All of the following results are to be understood over a 15-year period (2000–2015).
Global outreach of French vs. Anglo-American psychoanalytic articles
Are French psychoanalytic journals almost absent from the international research scene?
A first step toward answering this question is to assess the global outreach of French
vs. Anglo-American articles, by determining the ratio of citations per psychoanalytic
article depending on its geographic origin (French vs. Anglo-American).
Aiming at a global outreach measure, we didn't differentiate between origin (French
vs. Anglo-American vs. other) or disciplinary affiliation of citing journals.
For this Table 2 cites referring to one and the same article in the same document
count as 2; and self-cites are included.
The results are telling: across all publication supports and languages, each French
psychoanalytic article is cited about only once (1,14 %), while for each Anglo-American
article, the ratio is of 10,6% - that is, about 10 times higher.
On the other hand, of the 11370 articles published in French psychoanalytic journals
over the last 15 years, 70,52% haven't been cited in any support, while this figure
drops to an average of 41,995% for the 12,540 articles published in Anglo-American
journals. In other words, looking back today over the last 15 years, the global rate
of non-citedness of Anglo-American psychoanalytic articles is almost twice as small
as that of French articles.
Geographic breakdown of psychoanalytic articles cites across all disciplines
We then sought to establish an overview of the geographic breakdown of psychoanalytic
articles citations in French vs. Anglo-American journals of all disciplines.
In the following table, the unit isn't the citation, but the article: two citations
of one and the same article count as 1, if the citation is in the same article, and
as 2 if in two different articles.
Out of the 6812 total cites referring to articles published in French psychoanalytic
journals, two thirds (66,23%) come from French journals (whatever their discipline),
and only 5,66% from Anglo-American journals. On the other hand, out of the 28,204
total cites referring to articles published in Anglo-American psychoanalytic journals,
63,08% (17,791) come from Anglo-American journals, and 1,20% (339) from French Journals.
Thus comparatively, French psychoanalytic articles are cited almost 5 times as much
(4,7 times) in Anglo-American journals (5,66%) as Anglo-American psychoanalytic articles
in French journals (1,20%).
Discussion
These data demonstrate that the global outreach of French psychoanalytic articles
is 10 times smaller than that of Anglo-American ones (Table 1) and that, unsurprisingly,
such articles are mostly referred to in French journals, wherein references to Anglo-American
ones are almost nonexistent (Table 2).
Limitations of the current data
One might argue that, since the considered time range is 2000–2015, the language barrier
could partly account for the difference in outreach ratio, and for the virtual absence
of Anglo-American citations in French journals—most of which are psychoanalytic. For
in France, only recently has the language barrier genuinely ceased to become less
of an issue. Nevertheless, the difference in outreach ratio is so striking, and the
references to Anglo-American work in French journals so scarce, that it is doubtful
whether language barrier could account for it.
Also, even though Scopus is the best available database for psychoanalytic journals,
it doesn't—yet—index certain French psychoanalytic journals (such as Research in Psychoanalysis
or Adolescence) which have quite an important readership amongst clinicians.
Most importantly, both outreach measures and geographic breakdown of citations are
not, in the present article, restricted to psychoanalytic journals: they include all
research and languages (Table 1). Indeed, when taking into account geographic breakdown
(Table 2), they do not differentiate among the disciplines of the citing journals.
Clearly, this would be important to examine in future studies.
We believe that, in light of the quantity of further database work required to reach
such detail and accuracy and the absence of papers addressing the current topic, it
makes sense to produce a few preliminary figures, in order to stimulate discussion
and continuing research. For example, it would be important to look at outreach within
different languages or disciplines; and specifically at the geographic breakdown of
psychoanalytic citations.
The figures provided in the present paper constitute an intriguing proxy as to both
the international outreach of French psychoanalytic research, and the specific citation
practices at work in the French psychoanalytic community. French psychoanalytic work
has quite a small outreach; and when cited, it is mostly in French journals—most of
which are, most likely, psychoanalytic. Therefore, in view of the outreach ratio,
it is likely that French psychoanalytic researchers (who arguably constitute most
of the readership of French psychoanalytic work) do not cite their peers very often.
And since we know (Table 2) that they almost never cite Anglo-American journals, it
is dubious that they are following standard citation practices.In order to prove this,
it would have to be studied more systematically. Our figures constitute a tempting
first step in this direction.
Finally, drawing a global picture (a long-term goal, in terms of database construction)
would require to integrate journals from other places, especially from Germany and
South America.
Explanatory considerations: a license to cite?
French citation practice can be traced to context. French psychoanalytic thought has
always partly taken place outside of the academic world, thereby following rules different
from standard academic discourse, for at least two reasons.
First, analysts appointed to full professorships in psychoanalytically-oriented psychology
(D. Lagache, J. Laplanche) had already gained prominence in analytic schools. Second,
becoming a licensed clinical psychologist in France doesn't require a full course
of graduate study: it is a 5-year Masters-level training, which aims at training psychologists
for clinical work in non-academic institutions. Thus, psychoanalytic thought taught
in such curricula mostly feeds clinicians who are not very concerned with academic
research.
This relative academic extraterritoriality of French psychoanalytic thought has an
impact on its visibility. A shared legacy inherited by the next generations, it is
mostly based upon the elaboration of local clinical practices: mental care institutions,
supervision groups in psychoanalytic schools, and the training of licensed psychologists.
In these contexts, this legacy is often already shared by clinicians; and when it
isn't (as in universities, where students become acquainted with it), it is referred
to in a practice-oriented, citation-free manner. Therefore, French psychoanalytic
publications often refer to this shared legacy in an implicit manner, at odds with
the explicit citation conventions that are standard practice in contemporary academy.
Perhaps, French psychoanalytic researchers have imposed restrictions upon themselves,
inhibited about switching from their inherited, implicit mode of referring to an explicit
mode of acknowledgment through citation
1
. They would, so to speak, lack the license to cite. This could account for the discrepancy
between French and Anglo-American citations in French psychoanalytic journals (Table
2): the extreme scarcity of Anglo-American journal citations could be understood as
the effect of an injunction to remain faithful to a national heritage.
Conclusion
The current lack of international outreach should be viewed as an opportunity. French
psychoanalysts should not be afraid to lose their singularity, as in the narcissism
of minor differences (Freud, 1921, 1930; Gabbard, 1993): engage with fellow international
researchers, which will help to clarify their clinical and theoretical originality.
However, such engagement would entail a precondition concerning research. Articles
should be written not for peers who share an implicit network of references, but for
an international community with diverse, local legacies, with the ultimate aim of
promoting an exchange of perspectives. Aspiring for international exchanges requires
that one takes recent work into greater account. While this focus might rely on the
short timespan of algorithmic measures of citation rate, and therefore has questionable
epistemic justification, it can also stir the field's vitality. Even though citation
practices do differ among disciplines (as between, say, biology and psychoanalysis),
the rate of citations of recent productions could count as an interesting proxy for
field vitality. The experience of one of the authors (EJ) is telling: he is the editor
of the psychoanalytic journal that has the highest impact factor over the last 5 years,
and has found that the increase in impact factor, has affected both the quality and
the quantity of submissions in a positive way
2
.
Finally, both French and English-speaking researchers and journals could benefit from
an increase in citational acknowledgment, which could help unite the field around
common, trans-national challenges. For example, an interesting—if complex—avenue for
psychoanalytic researchers would be to try and expand bibliometric quality parameters.
Since psychoanalytic research primarily aims at developing therapeutic theories and
practices (a distinctive status within the social science), an interesting task would
be to try and devise a social value metrics, reflecting the social value of psychoanalytic
research. Such a goal, which might well complement the proliferating research on the
assessment of therapeutic change, would certainly require an international collaboration.
Author contributions
RP and OP are equal contributors to this paper (co-first authors). RP has put together
the original database on the basis of Scopus, and has calculated the results. He has
contributed to writing the paper (structure of the argument); he has co-constructed
the interpretation of the results and of their limits, and their discussion. OP has
contributed to the structure of the argument, and has written the detailed version
of the paper. He has co-constructed the interpretation of the results and of their
limits, and their discussion. CD has contributed to the design of the original database,
to calculating the results and to their statistical interpretation. EJ has contributed
to writing the paper (structure of the argument, references). All authors read and
approved the final manuscript.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial
or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.