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.
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number
2070.
Find related papers by JEL classification: A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists O3 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change
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Jan Ours & Frederic Vermeulen, 2007.
"Ranking Dutch Economists,"
De Economist,
Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 469-487, December.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Ours, J.C. van & Vermeulen, F.M.P., 2007.
"Ranking Dutch Economists,"
Discussion Paper
2007-72, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
[Downloadable!]
Hunter, Rosalind S. & Oswald, Andrew J. & Charlton, Bruce G., 2009.
"The Elite Brain Drain,"
IZA Discussion Papers
4005, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: