Oswald, Andrew J. (2006) An examination of the reliability of prestigious scholarly journals: evidence and implications for decision-makers. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick, Department of Economics. (Warwick economic research papers.

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Abstract

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. This paper’s results 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.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Research Assessment Exercise (Great Britain), Universities and colleges -- Finance, Periodicals -- Publishing, Government aid to higher education, Research -- Evaluation
Series Name:	Warwick economic research papers
Publisher:	University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Date:	3 April 2006
Number:	No.744
Number of Pages:	14
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
References:	Bayers, N.K. (2005) Using ISI Data in the Analysis of German National and Institutional Research Output, Scientometrics, 62, 155-163. Laband, D. (1990) Is There Value-Added from the Review Process in Economics? Preliminary Evidence from Authors, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 105, 341-352. Moore, W.J., Newman, R.J. and Turnbull, G.K. (1998) Do Academic Salaries Decline with Seniority?, Journal of Labor Economics, 16, 352-366. Thursby, J.G. (2000) What Do We Say about Ourselves and What Does it Mean? Yet Another Look at Economics Department Research, Journal of Economic Literature, 38, 383-404. Toutkoushian, R.K. (1994) Using Citations to Measure Sex-Discrimination in Faculty Salaries, Review of Higher Education, 18, 61-82. Van Raan, A.F.J. (1998) Assessing the Social Sciences: The Use of Advanced Bibliometric Methods as a Necessary Complement to Peer Review, Research Evaluation, 7, 2-6.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/1451

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