Disciplinary Fluidity: Academic Journals, Book Reviewing, Information and Knowledge Flow

Book reviews are an indicator of information and knowledge flow. This study explores and discusses the importance of disciplinary cultures among academic disciplines and disciplinary influence. Utilizing book reviews in disciplinary publications in history for the years 2016–2020, from two canonical history databases, a bibliometric view emerging of a selection of subjects reviewed in journals not associated with the disciplinary subject of research. Examination of book reviews for the fluidity of knowledge in academic disciplines provides evidence of information and knowledge flow in publishing academic books. Data and discussion further frames and situates the growing hybridization of subjects of research and their disciplinary publishing. Book reviews, as a barometer and approach to examining this phenomenon, illustrates book reviewing vis-à-vis academic disciplinary journals that are receptive to other disciplinary objects of research, not generally associated with that discipline. As scholarly research continues to metamorphose, book reviewing assumes a receptive and broader intellectual and publishing ecology.