John Mearsheimer’s academic roots: a reference publication year spectroscopy of a political scientist’s oeuvre

AbstractJohn J. Mearsheimer is one of the most renowned theorists of International Relations and is often regarded as one of the primary representatives of the theoretical school of neorealism. To be able to understand and classify his positions, it is necessary to investigate his (theoretical) backgrounds and academic roots. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to analyze the roots of this political scientist with the help of the method Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS)—a specific kind of cited reference analysis—using the program CitedReferenceExplorer (CRExplorer). In the statistical analyses, we compiled a list of the most cited works by Mearsheimer and conducted an analysis of temporal peaks in these works. The dataset used for the analyses was taken from the Web of Science database (WoS, Clarivate): 59 publications with 2061 non-distinct cited references. The list of the 16 most frequently cited references in the publication set shows various texts and authors that seem to be important for Mearsheimer’s academic work. Thematic focuses of cited publications as well as the type of publication indicate that the scientist’s respective works and texts are embedded in the corresponding publication periods. The analysis of the peaks in the referenced publication years illustrates the following: On the one hand, the publication years in which Mearsheimer derived his fundamental theory of International Relations can be inferred. On the other hand, later years show his subsequent thematic focuses and his preoccupation with current events and conflicts.