Geographical concentration - The case of economics journals

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether geographical concentration can act as a supplement to the Journal Impact Factor (JIF). The results indicate that the use of a geographical concentration measure opens up new possibilities for analyses of the development of geographic diversion over time. In contrast to measures used in earlier studies the precise strength of the geographical concentration index as a measure of diversion is that it represents diversion as a single value that can be followed over time. The results show wider geographic distribution of European economics journals in the 1980s compared to the American economics journals whereas there seems to be no difference in geographic dispersion in the 1990s.