Construction management and economics: A review of the first ten years

Construction management and construction economics are internationally recognized research fields which enjoy support from a strong and growing community of researchers, scholars and practitioners. Specialist academic and professional journals which serve the fields are relatively new. One of the prime journals, Construction Management and Economics, celebrated ten years of continuous publication in 1992. In the ten years since its inception, Construction Management and Economics has grown and has become more international. Whilst it has sharpened its focus on project-level production-oriented issues it has reflected the varied activities and interests of those involved with construction management and economics research and scholarship. Analysis of the pattern of publications in the journal and of their citations suggests a strengthening of the academic base of papers although there is little evidence that this is achieved by approaches to research that are clearly driven by, or contribute to, theory. In addition, patterns of citations suggest that studies are becoming increasingly inward-looking. Whilst there has been remarkable stability in the general characteristics of papers there have been significant changes in the identities of frequent authors and of key contributing institutions. A new generation of contributors has emerged. The paper documents these developments in the journal. In addition, through the design of a meta- classification model, it makes tentative proposals of dimensions by which research in the discipline can be defined and described.