Mapping Landmark Publications and Historical Roots of Translation Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis Using Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy

This study analyzes the landmark publications, evolutionary stages and the corresponding historical roots of translation studies (TS) by examining cited references (CRs) of articles in the 14 Social Science Citation Index-indexed TS journal from 1955 to 2024. Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS) method is applied to the above-mentioned publication set of 6279 articles through CRExplorer to reveal frequently cited works within the field of TS and to quantify their impacts along with qualitative interpretations. Via the 167,871 CRs, our study identifies ten landmark publications by the N_TOP10 indicator. They are books or monographs emerged in the 1950s to the 1970s, centered on theoretical perspectives of TS. Their citation dynamic is shown via their impact sequence across citing years. Those who underwent a downward trend might be the results of knowledge assimilation and paradigm turns in the field. Moreover, three distinct periods in the evolution of TS are unveiled with the combination of RPYS and Tukey’s fences: i) budding period (Pre-1955) marked by inspirations of prominent translators or critics; ii) formative period (1956–90) characterized by the formation of foundations literature; (iii) consolidation period (1991–2017) featuring the production of solidifying academic contributions to TS. According to the qualitative analysis of the landmark publications and historical roots of each period, it is found that books significantly outweigh journal articles as the dominant medium, suggesting that knowledge dissemination in TS relies heavily on monographs rather than rapidly published journal research. The implications and limitations of the findings are also discussed.