Analysis of the Articles Published in Journal for ‎Children’s Literature Studies (the First 20 Issues) with ‎an Emphasis on Subject Matter, Theoretical ‎Framework, Frequent Authors and Highly Cited ‎Sources

In recent decades, with the recognition of the significance of children’s literature in academia, many institutes in Iran and around the world have turned their attention to the criticism and analysis of works related to the world of children. One of the influential institutes in the field of criticism and theory of children’s literature is the Center for Children’s Literature Studies established in 2005 in Shiraz University. The activities of this center have led to the development of university programs for children’s and adolescents’ literature and its curriculum in 2009 and 2010 (Khosrownejad & Atashi, 2019: 24; Maktabifard, 2016: 26-27). The research-based perspective of this center was accelerated with the publication of a research journal known as Journal for Children’s Literature Studies in 2010 (Maktabifard, 2016: 27). Since then, findings of university critics have been published for those interested in children’s literature through this biannual journal.Considering the influence of this center on the expansion and direction of theory and criticism of children’s literature, the present research analyzes the articles in the first 20 issues of this journal in order to identify the changes in the subject matter and the perspectives of the researchers and critics in the field of children’s literature, as well as to analyze the sources, subjects and works used by researchers, and to offer suggestions in the related fields to researchers and scientific committee of the journal.