Article impact of the Financial Times 50 management journals

An academic journal is produced by a voluntary organization of scholars who create bodies of common knowledge consisting of the journal's published articles, along with all the references that link to the sources of knowledge for those articles. Even journals in the same discipline develop distinct bodies of common knowledge. New articles simultaneously build on and contribute to this common knowledge and we argue that this interaction with a journal's common knowledge influences how an article will be cited in the future. We explore the ecosystem identified by the Financial Times 50 management journals, demonstrating the overlap and distinction in their common knowledge. We find that journals fundamentally differ in the body of knowledge that comprises them, the sources of knowledge that contribute to them, and the journals to which they make an impact. Our findings generate novel insights into how the references cited in an article affect future citations.