Are Academia and Industry Listening to Each Other? A Citation Analysis of UX Research Methods Resources

Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) has been facing concerns of viability, in both its relationship with industry and its ability to build a relevant and valid body of research. TPC's disconnection with industry may be reflected in its relationship to UX as well, despite both fields' shared values. To better understand how TPC and User Experience (UX) are relating to each other, we conducted a citation analysis of a sample of SIGDOC papers and a sample of Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) practitioner articles focused on research methods. The SIGDOC papers tended to cite TPC sources, while the NN/g articles cited no TPC, but did cite disciplines such as HCI and Psychology. The findings point to opportunities for TPC to improve its connection and influence beyond academia.