2026 James W. Pennebaker: Psychology Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Psychology	124	208	183	131	113	353	104091

Research.com Recognitions

2016 - APA Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology, American Psychological Association
2003 - Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA)

Overview

James W. Pennebaker is affiliated with The University of Texas at Austin in the United States. Their research spans across multiple disciplines with a focus on psychology, social sciences, and computer science. Pennebaker's work frequently intersects with artificial intelligence, social psychology, and applied psychology.

The scientist has contributed extensively to the understanding of mental health through writing and digital mental health interventions. Other prominent research topics include misinformation and its impacts, sentiment analysis and opinion mining, mental health research topics broadly, topic modeling, and social and intergroup psychology.

Key recent papers by Pennebaker include:

Using large language models in psychology (2023), published in Nature Reviews Psychology
The narrative arc: Revealing core narrative structures through text analysis (2020), published in Science Advances
Understanding Anti-Vaccination Attitudes in Social Media (2021), published in Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
The Psychology of Word Use in Depression Forums in English and in Spanish: Testing Two Text Analytic Approaches (2021), published in Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
Values in Words: Using Language to Evaluate and Understand Personal Values (2021), published in Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media

Frequent collaborators include:

Ryan L. Boyd
Rada Mihalcea
Laura Biester
Ashwini Ashokkumar
Sarah Seraj

The scientist's work has been published regularly in venues such as:

Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
Scientific Reports
PLoS ONE
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Science Advances

Awards received by Pennebaker include:

APA Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2016
Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), 2003

Best Publications

The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text analysis methods

Yla R. Tausczik;James W. Pennebaker

6827
Citations
The Development and Psychometric Properties of LIWC2015

James W. Pennebaker;Ryan L. Boyd;Kayla Jordan;Kate Blackburn

4664
Citations
Health complaints, stress, and distress: exploring the central role of negative affectivity.

David Watson;James W. Pennebaker

4466
Citations
Writing About Emotional Experiences as a Therapeutic Process

James W. Pennebaker

3987
Citations
Psychological aspects of natural language. use: our words, our selves.

James W. Pennebaker;Matthias R. Mehl;Kate G. Niederhoffer

3438
Citations
Confronting a Traumatic Event. Toward an Understanding of Inhibition and Disease

James W. Pennebaker;Sandra Klihr Beall

3238
Citations
Linguistic styles: language use as an individual difference.

James W. Pennebaker;Laura A. King

2527
Citations
Disclosure of Traumas and Immune Function: Health Implications for Psychotherapy.

James W. Pennebaker;Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser;Ronald Glaser

2398
Citations
Forming a story: The health benefits of narrative

James W. Pennebaker;Janel D. Seagal

2338
Citations
The psychology of physical symptoms

James W. Pennebaker

2295
Citations
Lying Words: Predicting Deception from Linguistic Styles

Matthew L. Newman;James W. Pennebaker;Diane S. Berry;Jane M. Richards

1855
Citations
Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic, and therapeutic implications

James W. Pennebaker

1835
Citations
Opening up : the healing power of expressing emotions

James W. Pennebaker

1771
Citations
Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: the blind men and the elephant revisited?

Jennifer K. Bosson;William B. Swann Jr.;James W. Pennebaker

1723
Citations
Cognitive, Emotional, and Language Processes in Disclosure

James W. Pennebaker;Martha E. Francis

1636
Citations
Confession, Inhibition, and Disease

James W. Pennebaker

1574
Citations
Accelerating the coping process.

James W. Pennebaker;Michelle Colder;Lisa K. Sharp

1442
Citations
Linguistic Predictors of Adaptive Bereavement

James W. Pennebaker;Tracy J. Mayne;Martha E. Francis

1422
Citations
The development and psychometric properties of LIWC2007

James W Pennebaker;Cindy K Chung;Molly Ireland;Amy Gonzales

1409
Citations
Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups.

Kathryn P. Davison;James W. Pennebaker;Sally S. Dickerson

1180
Citations
Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC): Pronounced “Luke,” . . . and Other Useful Facts

Cindy K. Chung;James W. Pennebaker

881
Citations
Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2007)

JW Pennebaker;Roger Booth;ME Francis

594
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Matthias R. Mehl University of Arizona

Keith J. Petrie University of Auckland

Richard B. Slatcher University of Georgia

Bernard Rimé Université Catholique de Louvain

Arthur C. Graesser University of Memphis

David Watson University of Notre Dame

Mike Martin University of Zurich

Samuel D. Gosling The University of Texas at Austin

M. Brent Donnellan Michigan State University

Daniel M. Wegner Harvard University

External Links

Wikipedia of James W. Pennebaker Personal website of James W. Pennebaker Google Scholar page

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