Higher education research is a growing, inter-disciplinary and increasingly international field of study. This article examines the citation patterns of articles published in six leading higher education journals—three published in the United States and three published elsewhere in the world—for what they reveal about the development of this field. The analysis shows that the American journals are not only dominated by American-based authors, but that they also cite predominantly articles, books, chapters and other publications published in the United States. By contrast, the three non-American journals accommodate a much broader spread internationally of both authors and citations. Possible explanations for these patterns, and whether they matter, are discussed.