Although community colleges comprise about one-third of all higher education institutions and
more than 50% of all public postsecondary education institutions–and serve important functions
in the U.S. higher education syste–they are often regarded as marginal. This is an argument
scholars have also made in relation to the prevalence of community college-focused scholarship,
including in top-tier journals. The purpose of this systematic scoping review is to examine the
prevalence of community college–related articles published between 2000 and 2019 across
top-tier multidisciplinary education and higher education journals, as well as community college
journals. We also identify topical themes (content areas) and subthemes (focal content areas) and
methodological approaches used by scholars in that literature. Further, we analyze the citation
prevalence of community college scholarship and composition of community college scholars on
journal editorial boards. We end with a discussion of the implications of policy, research, and
practice of our investigation on the community college literature.
Nienhusser, H. K., Kerrigan, M., Romandia, O., Boehning, M. (in press). A systematic scoping review of the community college literature: 2000–2019. Review of Educational Research.