  This paper explores intellectual and social proximity among scholarly
journals by using network fusion techniques. Similarities among journals are
initially represented by means of a three-layer network based on co-citations,
common authors and common editors. The information contained in the three
layers is then combined by building a fused similarity network. The fusion
consists in an unsupervised process that exploits the structural properties of
the layers. Subsequently, partial distance correlations are adopted for
measuring the contribution of each layer to the structure of the fused network.
Finally, the community morphology of the fused network is explored by using
modularity. In the three fields considered (i.e. economics, information and
library sciences and statistics) the major contribution to the structure of the
fused network arises from editors. This result suggests that the role of
editors as gatekeepers of journals is the most relevant in defining the
boundaries of scholarly communities. In information and library sciences and
statistics, the clusters of journals reflect sub-field specializations. In
economics, clusters of journals appear to be better interpreted in terms of
alternative methodological approaches. Thus, the graphs representing the
clusters of journals in the fused network are powerful instruments for
exploring research fields.
