KM Citation Trends And Google Scholar Effect.pdf

The purpose of this study is to discover growing, stable, and declining knowledge management (KM) research trends. Citations to 100 KM citation classics identified by Serenko and Dumay (2015) were collected and analyzed. The analysis reveals a bimodal citation distribution peak for a majority of KM citation classics and a growing number of citations for all research topics. This unexpected finding is attributed to the Google Scholar Effect, which may result from the continuously growing volume of citations. The study's results open up two significant research opportunities: understanding the impact of Google Scholar on domains beyond KM and investigating the impact of erroneous citations on academic discourse and reputation. The study also highlights the need for researchers to be aware of the pressure from the contemporary "publish or perish" environment and the prevalence of mis-citations. The findings of this study are important for scientometric research and inform the direction of KM research toward developing new KM knowledge. The study proposes the following research question: What are the growing, stable, and declining KM research topics? The analysis of erroneous citations and a five-year citation trend (2009-2013) reveals that the Google Scholar Effect may be responsible for the continuously growing volume of citations. The study's results have practical implications for researchers, KM reviewers, and editors, who need to be aware of the pressure and prevalence of mis-citations and take action to raise awareness and prevent mis-citations. The study's originality and value lie in its contribution to the scientometric research field, which uses Google Scholar to measure the impact and power it has in influencing what gets cited and by whom.