Are Overall Journal Rankings a Good Mapping for Article Quality in Specialty Fields?

Journal ranking systems are increasingly used to measure research performance of academics and universities. A growing number of academic commentators have voiced concerns of possible undesirable outcomes such as increased publication anxiety and an increase in safe and conforming research, but there have been few empirical studies on the possible effects. To address this gap, we surveyed Information Systems (IS) academics who published in one of three key IS conferences in 2013, to gather their views of the effects of journal ranking systems. Overall, we found that the concerns in the literature were strongly reflected in the views of those surveyed. Academics believe the system has greatly increased their publication anxiety. While most believed that the quality of published research had improved, researchers believe the ranking systems inhibit innovative, risky research, and encourages safe, conforming, mainstream research.

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Nurturing Novelty: Toulmin's Greenhouse, Journal Rankings and Knowledge Evolution

European Management Review ◽

10.1111/emre.12334 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 167-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Douglas W.S. Renwick ◽

Dermot Breslin ◽

Ilfryn Price

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Evolution ◽

Journal Rankings

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An Update of the Vox Populi Approach to Academic Journal Rankings: 2011 in Review

Asian Journal of Business Research ◽

10.14707/ajbr.120002 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James E. Richard ◽

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Kim-Shyan Fam ◽

Geoff Plimmer ◽

Stephan Gerschewski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Academic Journal ◽

Journal Rankings

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Quality assessment of nutrition coverage in the media: a 6-week survey of five popular UK newspapers

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014633 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (12) ◽

pp. e014633 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Alice R Kininmonth ◽

Nafeesa Jamil ◽

Nasser Almatrouk ◽

Charlotte E L Evans

Keyword(s):

Health Outcome ◽

Quality Assessment ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Quality Score ◽

Food Type ◽

The Public ◽

Day Of The Week ◽

Article Quality

ObjectivesTo investigate the quality of nutrition articles in popular national daily newspapers in the UK and to identify important predictors of article quality.SettingNewspapers are a primary source of nutrition information for the public.DesignNewspaper articles were collected on 6 days of the week (excluding Sunday) for 6 weeks in summer 2014. Predictors included food type and health outcome, size of article, whether the journalist was named and day of the week.Outcome measuresA validated quality assessment tool was used to assess each article, with a minimum possible score of −12 and a maximum score of 17. Newspapers were checked in duplicate for relevant articles. The association of each predictor on article quality score was analysed adjusting for remaining predictors. A logistic regression model was implemented with quality score as the binary outcome, categorised as poor (score less than zero) or satisfactory (score of zero or more).ResultsOver 6 weeks, 141 nutrition articles were included across the five newspapers. The median quality score was 2 (IQR −2–6), and 44 (31%) articles were poor quality. There was no substantial variation in quality of reporting between newspapers once other factors such as anonymous publishing, health outcome, aspect of diet covered and day of the week were taken into account. Particularly low-quality scores were obtained for anonymously published articles with no named journalist, articles that focused on obesity and articles that reported on high fat and processed foods.ConclusionsThe general public are regularly exposed to poor quality information in newspapers about what to eat to promote health, particularly articles reporting on obesity. Journalists, researchers, university press officers and scientific journals need to work together more closely to ensure clear, consistent nutrition messages are communicated to the public in an engaging way.

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A complementary examination of author characteristics of finance journals

Managerial Finance ◽

10.1108/mf-04-2015-0098 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 42 (4) ◽

pp. 365-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kam C. Chan ◽

Annie Wong ◽

Hannah Wong

Keyword(s):

Doctoral Programs ◽

Doctoral Program ◽

Journal Editor ◽

Valuable Insight ◽

Content Type ◽

Journal Rankings ◽

Final Sample ◽

Accredited Schools ◽

Important Publication ◽

Acceptance Rates

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a complementary analysis of finance journals that are often being overlooked in prior studies. Specifically, the authors examine the Australian Business Dean Council’s (ABDC’s) C-ranked journals in terms of their authors’ affiliations with US colleges, US colleges with Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations, and US colleges with AACSB doctoral program accreditations. Design/methodology/approach – A list of C-ranked journals is downloaded from the ABDC’s website. Full-text articles of these journals are downloaded from library databases for the five-year period of 2009-2013. Author affiliations are collected from the corresponding articles. Journal histories, journal editor locations, Cabell’s journal rankings, and acceptance rates are collected from the ABDC’s database, Cabell’s Directory, journal websites, and library databases. The final sample consists of 28 finance journals. Findings – The authors find that these journals have a substantial number and percentage of authors from US colleges. Among the US authors, about 92 percent of them are from AACSB accredited schools and most of them are from AACSB accredited schools with doctoral programs. The findings support the notion that these journals are important publication outlets for US researchers. The authors also find that journals with longer histories and US-based editors have a higher percentage of US authors. In addition, journals with better Cabell’s journal rankings and higher rejection rates have higher percentage of US authors from AACSB accredited schools with doctoral programs. Originality/value – C-ranked journals are often neglected in prior studies on journal characteristics because they are less well-known and less likely to be cited. However, these journals constitute as many as half of all finance journals in the ABDC database and can be important publication outlets for finance researchers. This study contributes to the literature by examining the author characteristics of these journals, namely, the proportions of authors who come from US colleges and authors who come from AACSB accredited US programs. Such an analysis will provide valuable insight into the value of these journals.

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