Increasing the Impact of Heterodox Work: Insights from "RoSE"

To help understand what enhances the prospects for heterodox work to have strong research impact, this article analyzes the pool of articles published in the "Review of Social Economy" in the past 15 years, aiming to identify what differentiates well-cited articles from others. Well-cited papers tend to be in areas of core concern in social economics (labor, health, social theory) and attract attention in related social sciences and policy fields. Yet about half the articles published in "RoSE" are not cited in another scholarly journal within three years of publication, suggesting that, as well done and interesting as these papers may be, problems like narrow focus seem to limit their influence on other people's work. The article's results suggest that increasing the impact of heterodox work requires articles to be interesting and accessible to intentionally broad audiences, and to prompt people to change their thinking. Better still if they open up channels of communication between diverse communities of scholars that are likely to be sustained. Copyright © 2010 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc..