Normative versus strategic accounts of acknowledgment data: The case of the top-five journals of economics

Two alternative accounts can be given of the information contained in acknowledgments academic publications. According to mainstream normative account serve repay debts towards formal or informal collaborators. strategic account, by contrast, increase perceived quality papers associating authors influential scholars. The two are assessed analyzing indexed Web Science 1218 articles published “top-five journals” economics for years 2015–2019. analysis is focused on six dimensions: (i) style acknowledging texts, (ii) distribution mentions, (iii) identity most mentioned acknowledgees, (iv) shares highly and lowly (v) hierarchy acknowledgment network, (vi) correlation at a paper level between intellectual similarity, measured common references, social acknowledges. Results show that should considered as valid but partial explanations behavior. Hence, used with extreme caution investigating collaboration practices they not produce acknowledgments-based metrics scholars evaluative purposes.