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Abstract

This study identified 100 North American based authors who have contributed 658 publications to the sociology of sport literature during the past decade. An analysis of the productivity patterns of these authors produced a perfect Bradford Distribution comprising ten core authors having fifteen or more publications each and accounting for over forty percent of all published work surveyed.

In conclusion, findings of this study:

1. Provide insight into the emergence and development of sport sociology in North America, and raise several implications regarding its future growth, especially with respect to the problem of adequate critical mass.

2. Suggest that the literature related to the sociology of sport in North America provides an adequate data set for testing Brookes' formulation of Bradford's Law relating to journal distribution and author productivity.

3. Suggest the need, rationale and method for conducting comparative studies of the productivity patterns of authors and periodicals in the speciality of sport sociology in other areas of the world and,

4. Demonstrates the importance of identifying key authors and publications in the sociology of sport for purposes of comprehensive bibliographical searches.

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An Exploratory Analysis of the Scholarly Productivity of North American Based Sport Sociologists

Abstract

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