The scientific productivity in Communication across the journal Zer

This article presents the results of a study on the individual and institutional research productivity in Zer Journal of Communication Studies, during its first ten years of history (1996-2005). This journal has been chosen for four reasons: it is the highest ranked publication; it is the journal in which most researchers want to publish their latest work; it is one of the top three journals in terms of impact in the field of communication; and it is one of the twelve Spanish journals of communication indexed in international databases. This is the first study on research productivity carried out in Spain to offer a ranking of authors. In order to identify and rank the most productive authors and universities, quantitative content analysis was conducted on the 220 research articles published by Zer from 1996 to 2005. The findings reveal that research productivity is low; that three universities produce more than half of the articles; that collaboration between universities is low; and that international collaboration is moderate.