The Citation Landscape of Scholarly Literature in LGBT Studies: A Snapshot for Subject Librarians

Karen Antell is Head of Reference and Outreach Services in Bizzell Memorial Library at the University of Oklahoma Libraries; e-mail: [email protected]. The author is grateful to EBSCO Publishing and EBSCO Account Executive Dana Beauvais for enabling temporary access to the EBSCO database LGBT Life during the data-gathering phase of this research. In addition, the author thanks Jaclyn Fulwood, Sean O’Brien, Carolyn Powell, Amy Rodgers, and Richard Tarver for data collection assistance and Lina Ortega for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. © 2012 Karen Antell, Attribution-NonCommercial (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC This paper reports the results of a citation analysis of the scholarly literature of LGBT Studies. EBSCO’s LGBT Life database was used to gather a sample of 4,321 citations from core scholarly journals in the field of LGBT Studies, covering the time period 1974 to 2010. The analysis reveals that, although LGBT Studies as an area of scholarship emerged from the gay rights activist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the field’s literature appears to be firmly rooted in the mainstream academic literature rather than in popular publications or community and activist periodicals. However, the field has a very high rate of cross-disciplinary citation and cites particularly heavily from medical journals and books. In addition to illuminating the citation characteristics of LGBT Studies, this paper presents lists of highly cited books and journals that should prove useful for subject librarians supporting LGBT Studies programs.