Black Scholars With the Most Citations in Social Science Journals in 2005

As we have done since 1993, JBHE recently conducted a database search of ISI’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Index for the citation counts of dozens of black scholars in this discipline. In each of the past 11 surveys JBHE conducted on black scholars in the social sciences, we determined that the leader in rankings was Professor William Julius Wilson, the sociologist formerly at the University of Chicago who is now University Professor at Harvard University. The result this year is unchanged. Once more, the citation count leader is Professor Wilson with a total of 306 citations in academic journals. Professor Wilson’s citation count increased by 24 from the previous year’s count.

The biggest gainer on our list of black scholars in the social sciences was David R. Williams, the Harold W. Cruse Collegiate Professor of Sociology and a professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Dr. Williams has conducted groundbreaking research on the determining factors producing racial disparities in health care. Williams had 283 citations in this year’s count, which placed him second among black scholars in the social sciences. The number of citations to Professor Williams’ work nearly doubled from a year ago.

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