Tuan's Topophilia: The Making of a Citation Classic

First published in 1974, Yi-Fu Tuan's work Topophilia has become one of the most cited works in human geography. Using the method of citation analysis and data from the Citation Indexes, this paper explores the frequency of Topophilia's inclusion as a reference in scholarly literature. A temporal trend is identified, which indicates that citation to Topophilia rose in the late 1970s, dropped in the early 1980s, but rose again in the late 1980s. Within journals, the references to Topophilia by geographers has declined since the 1980s while citations in literature in the humanities has increased since the late 1980s. A four stage life-cycle of a "citation classic" is put forward: (1) Publication Stage; (2) Consolidation Stage; (3) Implementation Stage; and (4) Incorporation Stage.