Crossing borders: A citation analysis of connections between Cognitive Science and Educational Research … and the fields in between

For decades, there have been calls for bringing the Cognitive Science literature and Educational Research literature into greater and more systematic contact, resulting in the publication of a number of influential papers and the launch of targeted federal funding programs around the turn of the century. This article explores the extent of the integration of Cognitive Science into the Educational Research literature at around that time by means of a citation analysis of journal articles published between 1994 and 2014. Results reveal a marked increase in the citation of Cognitive Science articles by Educational Research articles beginning around the year 2000. They also show a similar increase in citation by Educational Research articles of articles appearing in 'Border field' journals (i.e. Educational Psychology, the Learning Sciences, Human-Computer Interaction, and Applied Linguistics). Border Field articles, in turn, show a relatively high percentage of citation of articles in both Education Research and Cognitive Science, suggesting that they may serve as a pathway for the flow of knowledge between fields. These trends held for papers with US authors as well as those with non-US authors. Limitations of citation analysis are discussed along with suggestions for future research.