Citation patterns in Peace andConflict Studies : a case study of the African Journal on Conflict Resolution

In this study, citation analysis was used to investigate the growth pattern and trends in peace and conflict studies as a subject discipline. The significance of peace and conflict studies as an evolving discipline in the social sciences andan area of contemporary interest makes this study relevant. A total of 3761 citations from the 20 issues (108 articles) of the African Journal of Conflict Resolution published from 2004 to 2011 were analysed using frequency counts and percentages. The findings show that books (42.44%) were the most prominent source of information. The books range from current publicationsto retrospective literature of age above 20 years. Journals (22.7%) and Internet sources (11.11%) also rank high as sources of information. The list of the most cited journals shows a strong geographical bias but a multi-disciplinary scope in which the political sciences feature prominently. The pattern of the average citations per year shows that conflict resolution as a field of study is fast maturinginto a distinct body of knowledge. The study recommends that librarians and information users in the field should take cognizance of these trends to enable them to access or utilize the literature optimally. It is also recommendsthat further studies be carried out in the near future to test how well the findings hold.