JRP Subject Areas and Keywords

Version 2.0
Version history: v.2.0, 14 Jan 2013, 13,200 entries; v.1.0, 16 Nov. 2011, 5,800 entries
Compiled by W. Ulrich (Editor, JRP) with assistance of D.P. Dash (Editor, JRP) and S. Kozakov (technical support, AU Press)

Notes:

1. Purpose: This list of subject areas and keywords is part of JRP's Concept Hierarchy, a taxonomy of index terms related to research practice that consists of three levels: (1) focus areas, (2) subject areas, and (3) keywords. Terms of all three levels can serve as index terms for articles published in the journal, as well as for assessing thematic gaps or possible developments of submissions. For an introduction to the Concept Hierarchy and its use as an editorial tool for authors, reviewers, and editors, see the Editorial of Issue 7(2).

2. Organization: Index terms are arranged by subject areas. There are 42 subject areas, ordered alphabetically. Within each subject area, names of other subject areas are listed in italics. In addition to serving as index terms, they stand for references to other subject areas where index terms of related interest may be found. Due to the thematic overlapping of subject areas, the same or similar index terms may be listed under several subject areas.

3. Alphabetical ordering of compound terms: Within each subject area, all index terms are listed alphabetically following the model of a phone directory rather than a dictionary. That is, compound terms (so-called multi-word strings) are ordered word-by-word rather than letter-by-letter. Hypothetical example:

• Words to be listed: "San Bernardino," "San Diego," "Santa Ana," "Santa Barbara," "sanction," "sans-serif," "sans souci," "sand," "sand fly" and "sandal"
• Dictionary order: San Bernardino, sanction, sand, sandal, sand fly, San Diego, sans-serif, sans souci, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara (i.e., spaces and hyphens between words are ignored)
• Phone directory order: San Bernardino, San Diego, sanction, sand, sand fly, sandal, sans souci, sans-serif, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara (i.e., spaces, unlike hyphens, define new words; compound terms are grouped based on alphabetical ranking of the first word, then the second word, and so on, resulting in a better overview of entire word families).

4. Use of ampersand: For reasons of economy, the Concept Hierarchy writes "and" consistently as "&" (ampersand). Both for listing compound terms alphabetically and for entering them in search engines, ampersands may be considered largely equivalent to "and," that is, they may (but need not) be spelled out; preference for either "&" or "and" should follow conventions or custom in the concerned fields of interest (e.g., in the management literature, the standard short form for "research and development" is "R&D;" in the subject area "Art & Research," the convention for writing the name of a major journal with the same name is to use an ampersand).

5. How to find adequate index terms: First consult the Table of JRP Focus Areas to choose focus areas of interest and the most relevant subject areas assigned to them; then use the current list to identify index terms of interest within the subject areas thus selected. To expand your search, either follow the references in the selected subject areas to other subject areas (given by the terms listed in italics) or use the search function of your browser to search for occurrences of index terms of interest under subject areas other than those considered in the first place.

6. Future developments of the Concept Hierarchy: Users are welcome to communicate errors or omissions in the current list, as well as suggestions for additions or amendments in future updates, to the editors of JRP.

 

• Applied research
• Applied social science
• Applied systems thinking
• Art & research
• Collaborative research
• Commercial research
• Computer-supported research
• Critical social science
• Design-oriented research
• Discourse theory & practice
• Empirical social science
• Logic of inquiry
• Participatory research
• Philosophical methods
• Philosophy of science
• Practical philosophy
• Problem-structuring methods (PSMs)
• Professionalism & expertise
• Qualitative analysis
• Quantitative analysis
• Reflective practice
• Research competence
• Research contexts
• Research culture
• Researcher biographies & careers
• Research ethics
• Research experiences & cases
• Research frameworks & paradigms
• Research methods
• Research policy
• Research process
• Research reporting & publishing
• Research training
• Science & politics
• Science & society
• Science & technology
• Science theory
• Scientific method
• Second-order research
• Social science
• Social theory
• Systems thinking