Analyzing research collaborations of information technology publications in leading hospitality and tourism journals : 1986–2005

In spite of the existence of many of published Information Technology [IT] related articles in tourism and hospitality research journals, the degree to which the collaboration and social interaction of researchers in IT and tourism remains largely unknown. This paper reports on a study that selected six leading research journals in hospitality and tourism, including Annals of Tourism Research [ATR], Journal of Travel Research [JTR], Tourism Management [TM], International Journal of Hospitality Management [IJHM], Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly [CQ], and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research [JHTR], as the source to analyze research collaboration in the context of IT and tourism research. A total of 4,140 full-length research papers have been published in the period of 1986 to 2005. On the basis of research findings, both national and international research has a significant increase of 154% and 175% between the first and second decades for IT related publications in these six journals. Interestingly, co-authored papers frequently have senior academics’ involvement, and that over 90% of the papers had three to four authors have at least one author who is a senior academician.