Epistemic community formation: a bibliometric study of recurring authors in medical journals

Using a selection of general science journals, general medical journals and specialized medical journals, this paper analyses four indicators of epistemic community formation: Synchronous, diachronous, immediate, and continuants. The analyses show that the specialized medical journals display higher levels of epistemic community formation as measured by the percentage of recurring authors. There are only slight differences in the results across analyses of the four indicators. Yet, the analyses of each indicator illustrate different levels of variance. The results further indicate that the level of epistemic community formation, as measured by the percentage of recurring authors, is closely tied to specialization, and could therefore also be considered as yet another indicator of specialization.