James W. Pennebaker

74.2k total citations · 28 hit papers
331 papers, 47.5k citations indexed

About

James W. Pennebaker is a scholar working on Social Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Sociology and Political Science. According to data from OpenAlex, James W. Pennebaker has authored 331 papers receiving a total of 47.5k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 160 papers in Social Psychology, 64 papers in Clinical Psychology and 52 papers in Sociology and Political Science. Recurrent topics in James W. Pennebaker's work include Mental Health via Writing (103 papers), Identity, Memory, and Therapy (28 papers) and Digital Communication and Language (23 papers). James W. Pennebaker is often cited by papers focused on Mental Health via Writing (103 papers), Identity, Memory, and Therapy (28 papers) and Digital Communication and Language (23 papers). James W. Pennebaker collaborates with scholars based in United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand. James W. Pennebaker's co-authors include Yla Tausczik, Matthias R. Mehl, David Watson, Kate Niederhoffer, Laura A. King, Cindy K. Chung, Ronald Glaser, Janice K. Kiecolt‐Glaser, Daniel M. Wegner and Tracy J. Mayne and has published in prestigious journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In The Last Decade

James W. Pennebaker

323 papers receiving 43.5k citations

Hit Papers

The Psychological Meaning... 1982 2026 1996 2011 2009 1989 2002 1997 1982 1000 2.0k 3.0k
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. The Psychological Meaning of Words: LIWC and Computerized Text Analysis Methods
    2009 3.8k citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Language and Social Psychology profile →
  2. Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity.
    1989 2.4k citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  3. Psychological Aspects of Natural Language Use: Our Words, Our Selves
    2002 1.8k citations James W. Pennebaker, Matthias R. Mehl et al. profile →
  4. Writing About Emotional Experiences as a Therapeutic Process
    1997 1.6k citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  5. The Psychology of Physical Symptoms
    1982 1.4k citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  6. Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease.
    1986 1.3k citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Abnormal Psychology profile →
  7. Linguistic styles: Language use as an individual difference.
    1999 1.2k citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology profile →
  8. The Development and Psychometric Properties of LIWC2015
    2015 991 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  9. Lying Words: Predicting Deception from Linguistic Styles
    2003 940 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  10. Handbook Of Mental Control
    1992 940 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  11. Forming a story: The health benefits of narrative
    1999 932 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  12. Disclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy.
    1988 800 citations James W. Pennebaker, Janice K. Kiecolt‐Glaser et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology profile →
  13. Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: The blind men and the elephant revisited?
    2000 762 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology profile →
  14. Cognitive, Emotional, and Language Processes in Disclosure
    1996 727 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  15. Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic, and therapeutic implications
    1993 695 citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  16. Language use of depressed and depression-vulnerable college students
    2004 675 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  17. Disclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy.
    1988 665 citations James W. Pennebaker, Janice K. Kiecolt‐Glaser et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology profile →
  18. Opening up : the healing power of expressing emotions
    1990 659 citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  19. Linguistic predictors of adaptive bereavement.
    1997 613 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology profile →
  20. Linguistic Markers of Psychological Change Surrounding September 11, 2001
    2004 594 citations Matthias R. Mehl, James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  21. Emotion, Disclosure, and Health
    1995 560 citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  22. Linguistic predictors of adaptive bereavement.
    1997 543 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology profile →
  23. Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups.
    2000 501 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  24. Gender Differences in Language Use: An Analysis of 14,000 Text Samples
    2008 493 citations Carla J. Groom, James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  25. The secret life of pronouns
    2011 481 citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  26. The secret life of pronouns: what our words say about us
    2012 373 citations James W. Pennebaker profile →
  27. When Small Words Foretell Academic Success: The Case of College Admissions Essays
    2014 367 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. profile →
  28. Pronoun Use Reflects Standings in Social Hierarchies
    2013 366 citations James W. Pennebaker et al. Journal of Language and Social Psychology profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
James W. Pennebaker United States 96 20.9k 13.1k 10.8k 7.7k 7.1k 331 47.5k
Kristopher J. Preacher United States 60 23.8k 1.1× 20.5k 1.6× 22.4k 2.1× 11.8k 1.5× 1.6k 0.2× 121 83.9k
Bengt Muthén United States 76 9.6k 0.5× 11.5k 0.9× 7.7k 0.7× 7.6k 1.0× 1.6k 0.2× 170 43.8k
Adrian Furnham United Kingdom 115 23.4k 1.1× 19.6k 1.5× 12.5k 1.2× 13.2k 1.7× 1.1k 0.1× 1.4k 60.9k
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi United States 78 19.6k 0.9× 9.6k 0.7× 11.1k 1.0× 13.1k 1.7× 1.2k 0.2× 240 56.7k
Oliver P. John United States 88 23.0k 1.1× 26.7k 2.0× 13.6k 1.3× 17.1k 2.2× 1.2k 0.2× 205 58.8k
Rex B. Kline Canada 26 11.6k 0.6× 11.0k 0.8× 10.8k 1.0× 5.2k 0.7× 1.1k 0.2× 71 46.0k
Richard E. Nisbett United States 84 17.7k 0.8× 4.1k 0.3× 14.3k 1.3× 8.0k 1.0× 2.8k 0.4× 171 45.4k
Robert R. McCrae United States 87 16.8k 0.8× 24.5k 1.9× 9.2k 0.9× 12.3k 1.6× 992 0.1× 201 47.2k
Norbert Schwarz United States 101 19.9k 1.0× 4.6k 0.4× 20.0k 1.9× 10.3k 1.3× 1.8k 0.3× 461 56.6k
David P. MacKinnon United States 74 12.8k 0.6× 15.2k 1.2× 11.3k 1.1× 6.8k 0.9× 815 0.1× 269 53.7k

Countries citing papers authored by James W. Pennebaker

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of James W. Pennebaker's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by James W. Pennebaker with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites James W. Pennebaker more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by James W. Pennebaker

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by James W. Pennebaker. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by James W. Pennebaker. The network helps show where James W. Pennebaker may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of James W. Pennebaker

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of James W. Pennebaker. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of James W. Pennebaker based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with James W. Pennebaker. James W. Pennebaker is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (2025). A Linguistic Strategy to Measure Negative Affective Polarization Through Text Content. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 44(6). 881–906.
2.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (2024). Using word clouds to reveal patients’ perceptions about their arthritis.. Health Psychology. 44(2). 101–107. 2 indexed citations
3.
Seraj, Sarah, Kate Blackburn, & James W. Pennebaker. (2021). Language left behind on social media exposes the emotional and cognitive costs of a romantic breakup. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118(7). 69 indexed citations
4.
Vine, Vera, Ryan L. Boyd, & James W. Pennebaker. (2020). Natural emotion vocabularies as windows on distress and well-being. Nature Communications. 11(1). 4525–4525. 75 indexed citations
5.
6.
Boyd, Ryan L., et al.. (2019). “LIWC auf Deutsch”: The Development, Psychometrics, and Introduction of DE- LIWC2015. Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich). 57 indexed citations
7.
Tackman, Allison Mary, David A. Sbarra, Angela L. Carey, et al.. (2018). Depression, negative emotionality, and self-referential language: A multi-lab, multi-measure, and multi-language-task research synthesis.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 116(5). 817–834. 135 indexed citations
8.
Ireland, Molly & James W. Pennebaker. (2010). Language style matching in writing: Synchrony in essays, correspondence, and poetry.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 99(3). 549–571. 233 indexed citations
9.
Ramírez‐Esparza, Nairán, et al.. (2007). La psicología del uso de las palabras: Un programa de computadora que analiza textos en español. Revista mexicana de psicología. 24(1). 85–99. 49 indexed citations
10.
Páez, Darío, Jean‐Claude Deschamps, & James W. Pennebaker. (2006). The social psychology of history: Defining the most important events of the last 10, 100, and 1000 years. 15–32. 35 indexed citations
11.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (2004). Escritura expresiva, deber de memoria y afrontamiento tras el impacto del 11-M: un estudio experimental. Ansiedad y Estrés. 10(2). 233–245. 8 indexed citations
12.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (2004). Testosterone as a Social Inhibitor: Two Case Studies of the Effect of Testosterone Treatment on Language.. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 113(1). 172–175. 20 indexed citations
13.
Mehl, Matthias R. & James W. Pennebaker. (2003). The sounds of social life: A psychometric analysis of students' daily social environments and natural conversations.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 84(4). 857–870. 350 indexed citations
14.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (2002). Evaluación de la escritura emocional autorreflexiva en estudiantes de ingeniería del Instituto Politécnico Nacional. 7(1). 71–92. 1 indexed citations
15.
Pennebaker, James W. & Amina Memon. (1996). Recovered memories in context: Thoughts and elaborations on Bowers and Farvolden (1996).. Psychological Bulletin. 119(3). 381–385. 11 indexed citations
16.
Pennebaker, James W.. (1993). Creación y mantenimiento de las memorias colectivas. 70(6). 35–52. 5 indexed citations
17.
Pennebaker, James W., Janice K. Kiecolt‐Glaser, & Ronald Glaser. (1988). Confronting traumatic experience and immunocompetence: A reply to Neale, Cox, Valdimarsdottir, and Stone.. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 56(4). 638–639. 21 indexed citations
18.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (1984). Confiding in others and illness rate among spouses of suicide and accidental-death victims.. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 93(4). 473–476. 240 indexed citations
19.
Burnam, M. Audrey, James W. Pennebaker, & David C. Glass. (1975). Time consciousness, achievement striving, and the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern.. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 84(1). 76–79. 132 indexed citations
20.
Pennebaker, James W., et al.. (1975). Reactions to severity and nature of threat among children of dissimilar socioeconomic levels.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 31(2). 338–342. 3 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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