The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between citations and the research trends of The Research Journal of the Costume Culture (RJCC) using bibliometric and network analyses. The results are as follows. First, the RJCC has been cited by a greater number of journals and high-reputation journals today. The RJCC has been mentioned in global academic journals in various fields, and it has been noted the most in environmental science. Second, because of examining the articles published in the RJCC over the past three years (2019–2021), it was found that the number of topics was evenly distributed in various subfields of the clothing and textiles sector. The RJCC principally deals with traditional clothing, ethics and sustainability, and technology, which means that the RJCC reflects the past, present, and future. As a result of conducting a cluster analysis using the Wakita-Tsurumi algorithm, the subjects of ethical fashion and sustainability were derived from the subdivisions of the RJCC. This suggests that the RJCC is a journal specialized in ethical fashion and sustainability sectors such as environmental, animal, and labor ethics. This study outlined the current status and future direction of academic journals in the field of clothing through an analysis of the RJCC’s influence change and the relationship between citations. In addition, it is academically significant because it identifies research trends and knowledge-structure changes in the apparel science field by identifying changes in research keywords and significant research topics by sector.

The areas of fashion research and fashion design aesthetics & fashion history have been studied under a common research heading as a Humanities subject in the UK and the USA, and as Clothing and Textiles Studies in Korea. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the 2004~2013 research tendencies in terms of reporting methods and contents from 181 world-renowned Fashion Theory research papers within the UK and USA fashion research corpus, and 359 Korean research papers from The Research Journal of Costume Culture related to fashion design aesthetics & costume history field. The subject areas, periods, methodologies, and differences in the topics of the studies were examined. The results of the research are as follows. Regarding the research authorship and length of the research papers, in Fashion Theory most papers were written by a single English-speaking or other foreign language-speaking author and were on average longer than 21 pages, while in The Research Journal of Costume Culture, many papers were jointly written by two Korean researchers and were between 11 and 20 pages. Regarding the content, Fashion Theory was connected to relatively wide and diverse periodical and regional boundaries including the body, clothing, the fashion media, and the overall fashion system, while The Research Journal of Costume Culture revolved around the body and clothing, textiles, the fashion media, and costumes. In addition, since the late 20th century, the studies appeared to be related to the current Western world overall or to the country of the author. Regarding the research methodology, Fashion Theory used diverse research subjects and methodologies, and research was conducted on topics relating to fashion culture or fashion aesthetics. On the other hand, The Research Journal of Costume Culture featured relatively more dynamic studies aimed at suggesting developments or solutions to problems. It was found that a large share of that research focused on detailed style analyses and suggestions for aspects such as design elements and design developments. Such differences are considered to be caused by the inherent differences between the academic departments for the Humanities, and the Human Ecology. The above research results are expected to provide fundamental information in setting a direction for future research to assist the globalization of domestic research.