An examination of the reliability of prestigious scholarly journals: evidence and implications for decision-makers

Arbeitspapier

In universities all over the world, hiring and promotion committees regularly hear the argument: this is important work because it is about to appear in prestigious journal X. Moreover, those who allocate levels of research funding, such as in the multi-billion pound Research Assessment Exercise in UK universities, often come under pressure to assess research quality in a mechanical way by using journal prestige ratings. The results in this paper suggest that such tendencies are dangerous. It uses total citations over a quarter of a century as the criterion. The paper finds that it is far better to publish the best article in an issue of a medium-quality journal like the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics than to publish the worst article (or often the worst 4 articles) in an issue of a top journal like the American Economic Review. Implications are discussed.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 2070

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Role of Economics; Role of Economists; Market for Economists
• Subject: citations ; research productivity ; economics journals ; Research Assessment Exercise ; Publikationsanalyse ; Fachzeitschrift ; Forschungsfinanzierung ; Wirtschaftswissenschaft

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Oswald, Andrew J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33306
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET