IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v41y2009i4p227-239.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring the impact of accounting journals using Google Scholar and the g-index

Author

Listed:
  • Rosenstreich, Daniela
  • Wooliscroft, Ben

Abstract

The UK's proposed Research Excellence Framework promotes a move towards citation analysis for assessing research performance. However, for business disciplines, journal rankings are likely to remain an important aid in evaluating research quality. The accounting literature includes many journal rankings and citation studies, however there has been little coverage of recent advances in these areas. This study explores approaches to assessing the impact of accounting journals with a focus on quantitative measures as a complement to peer-review-based evaluation. New data sources and techniques for citation studies are reviewed, and the g-index is selected for further analysis. The g-index was developed by Professor Leo Egghe in 2006 as an improvement on the h-index. Like the h-index, the g-index represents a relationship between papers published and the level of citations they receive, but the g-index is more sensitive to highly cited paper. To apply the g-index to accounting journals, the study first combines eight published journals rankings to produce a list of 34 highly-regarded titles. Citation data are then gathered from Google Scholar and used to calculate g-index scores as the basis of a new ranking. Google Scholar is found to have broader coverage of accounting citations than Scopus or the Web of Science databases, but requires cleaning to remove duplicate entries. The use of the g-index for ranking journals is found to be a useful innovation in citation analysis, allowing a more robust assessment of the impact of journals.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosenstreich, Daniela & Wooliscroft, Ben, 2009. "Measuring the impact of accounting journals using Google Scholar and the g-index," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 227-239.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:41:y:2009:i:4:p:227-239
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2009.10.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838909000614
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2009.10.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jones, M. J. & Brinn, T. & Pendlebury, M., 1996. "Judging the quality of research in business schools: A comment from accounting," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 597-602, October.
    2. Wakefield, Robin, 2008. "Networks of accounting research: A citation-based structural and network analysis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 228-244.
    3. Apostolos Ballas & Vasilis Theoharakis, 2003. "Exploring Diversity in Accounting through Faculty Journal Perceptions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 619-644, December.
    4. Leo Egghe, 2006. "Theory and practise of the g-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 131-152, October.
    5. Woeginger, Gerhard J., 2008. "An axiomatic analysis of Egghe’s g-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 364-368.
    6. Brown, Lawrence D, 2003. "Ranking Journals Using Social Science Research Network Downloads," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 291-307, May.
    7. Leo Egghe, 2000. "A Heuristic Study of the First-Citation Distribution," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 48(3), pages 345-359, July.
    8. Gad Saad, 2006. "Exploring the h-index at the author and journal levels using bibliometric data of productive consumer scholars and business-related journals respectively," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 117-120, October.
    9. Jones, M. J. & Brinn, T. & Pendlebury, M., 1996. "Journal evaluation methodologies: A balanced response," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 607-612, October.
    10. Alireza Tahai & Michael J. Meyer, 1999. "A revealed preference study of management journals’ direct influences," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 279-296, March.
    11. Jones, Michael John, 1999. "Critically evaluating an applications vs theory framework for research quality," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 397-401, June.
    12. John Hudson, 2007. "Be known by the company you keep: Citations — quality or chance?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(2), pages 231-238, May.
    13. Brown, Ld & Gardner, Jc, 1985. "Using Citation Analysis To Assess The Impact Of Journals And Articles On Contemporary Accounting Research (Car)," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 84-109.
    14. Lokman I. Meho & Kiduk Yang, 2007. "Impact of data sources on citation counts and rankings of LIS faculty: Web of science versus scopus and google scholar," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58(13), pages 2105-2125, November.
    15. Vivien Beattie & Alan Goodacre, 2006. "A new method for ranking academic journals in accounting and finance," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 65-91.
    16. Lowe, Alan & Locke, Joanne, 2005. "Perceptions of journal quality and research paradigm: results of a web-based survey of British accounting academics," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 81-98, January.
    17. Leo Egghe & Ronald Rousseau, 2000. "The influence of publication delays on the observed aging distribution of scientific literature," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 51(2), pages 158-165.
    18. Anton J. Nederhof, 2006. "Bibliometric monitoring of research performance in the Social Sciences and the Humanities: A Review," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 66(1), pages 81-100, January.
    19. Leo Egghe, 2008. "Mathematical theory of the h‐ and g‐index in case of fractional counting of authorship," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(10), pages 1608-1616, August.
    20. Anthony F. J. Raan, 2006. "Comparison of the Hirsch-index with standard bibliometric indicators and with peer judgment for 147 chemistry research groups," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(3), pages 491-502, June.
    21. Tibor Braun & Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2006. "A Hirsch-type index for journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 169-173, October.
    22. Johan Bollen & Herbert Van de Sompel, 2008. "Usage impact factor: The effects of sample characteristics on usage‐based impact metrics," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(1), pages 136-149, January.
    23. Dag W. Aksnes, 2003. "A macro study of self-citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(2), pages 235-246, February.
    24. Kam C. Chan & Kartono Liano, 2009. "Threshold citation analysis of influential articles, journals, institutions and researchers in accounting," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 49(1), pages 59-74, March.
    25. Michael G. Banks, 2006. "An extension of the Hirsch index: Indexing scientific topics and compounds," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 161-168, October.
    26. Brinn, Tony & Jones, Michael John & Pendlebury, Maurice, 2000. "Measuring research quality: peer review 1, citation indices 0," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 237-239, April.
    27. Judit Bar-Ilan, 2008. "Which h-index? — A comparison of WoS, Scopus and Google Scholar," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 74(2), pages 257-271, February.
    28. Henry Small, 2004. "On the shoulders of Robert Merton: Towards a normative theory of citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(1), pages 71-79, May.
    29. Bonner, Sarah E. & Hesford, James W. & Van der Stede, Wim A. & Young, S. Mark, 2006. "The most influential journals in academic accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 663-685, October.
    30. Brown, Rhoda & Jones, Michael & Steele, Tony, 2007. "Still flickering at the margins of existence? Publishing patterns and themes in accounting and finance research over the last two decades," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 125-151.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kenny, Sara York & Larson, Robert K., 2018. "A review and analysis of Advances in International Accounting research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 117-126.
    2. Tharapos, Meredith & Marriott, Neil, 2020. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Research quality in accounting education," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    3. Dixon, Keith, 2013. "Growth and dispersion of accounting research about New Zealand before and during a National Research Assessment Exercise: Five decades of academic journals bibliometrics," MPRA Paper 51100, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Dellaportas, Steven & Xu, Lina & Yang, Zhiqiang, 2022. "The level of cross-disciplinarity in cross-disciplinary accounting research: analysis and suggestions for improvement," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Siganos, Antonios, 2021. "Guest editor networking in special issues," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Larson, Robert K. & Sale, J. Timothy, 2016. "Advances in international accounting: A retrospective commentary," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 216-220.
    7. Pontille, David & Torny, Didier, 2010. "Revues qui comptent, revues qu’on compte :produire des classements en économie et gestion," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 8.
    8. S. Douglas Beets & Andrea S. Kelton & Bruce R. Lewis, 2015. "An assessment of accounting journal quality based on departmental lists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 315-332, January.
    9. Wai Ching Poon & Gareth D. Leeves, 2017. "Is there gender gap unequivocally? Evidence from research output 1958–2008," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1687-1701, June.
    10. Matthias Meyer & Rüdiger W. Waldkirch & Michael A. Zaggl, 2012. "Relative Performance Measurement of Researchers: The Impact of Data Source Selection," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 64(4), pages 308-330, October.
    11. Tavares Thomé, Antônio Márcio & Scavarda, Luiz Felipe & Fernandez, Nicole Suclla & Scavarda, Annibal José, 2012. "Sales and operations planning: A research synthesis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 1-13.
    12. Muhammad Salman & Mohammad Masroor Ahmed & Muhammad Tanvir Afzal, 2021. "Assessment of author ranking indices based on multi-authorship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4153-4172, May.
    13. Lyudmyla Shkulipa, 2021. "Evaluation of accounting journals by coverage of accounting topics in 2018–2019," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7251-7327, September.
    14. Walters, William H., 2017. "Do subjective journal ratings represent whole journals or typical articles? Unweighted or weighted citation impact?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 730-744.
    15. Argento, Daniela & van Helden, Jan, 2023. "Are public sector accounting researchers going through an identity shift due to the increasing importance of journal rankings?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    16. Silvia Ferramosca & Roberto Verona, 2020. "Framing the evolution of corporate social responsibility as a discipline (1973–2018): A large‐scale scientometric analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 178-203, January.
    17. Muhammad Raheel & Samreen Ayaz & Muhammad Tanvir Afzal, 2018. "Evaluation of h-index, its variants and extensions based on publication age & citation intensity in civil engineering," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 1107-1127, March.
    18. Christoph Endenich & Rouven Trapp, 2016. "Cooperation for Publication? An Analysis of Co-authorship Patterns in Leading Accounting Journals," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 613-633, September.
    19. Lina Xu & Steven Dellaportas & Zhiqiang Yang & Jin Wang, 2023. "More on the relationship between interdisciplinary accounting research and citation impact," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4779-4803, December.
    20. Gray, Rob & Perks, Bob, 2018. "Reflections on some of the formative years of the British Accounting Review: Thoughts of ducklings and swans," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 580-587.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wai Ching Poon & Gareth D. Leeves, 2017. "Is there gender gap unequivocally? Evidence from research output 1958–2008," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1687-1701, June.
    2. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    3. Zhang, Lin & Thijs, Bart & Glänzel, Wolfgang, 2011. "The diffusion of H-related literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 583-593.
    4. Judit Bar-Ilan, 2008. "The h-index of h-index and of other informetric topics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(3), pages 591-605, June.
    5. Geert Campenhout & Tom Caneghem & Steve Uytbergen, 2008. "A comparison of overall and sub-area journal influence: The case of the accounting literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(1), pages 61-90, October.
    6. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano, 2011. "Bibliometric positioning of scientific manufacturing journals: a comparative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(2), pages 463-485, February.
    7. Hussain, Simon, 2010. "Accounting journals and the ABS quality ratings," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-16.
    8. S. Douglas Beets & Andrea S. Kelton & Bruce R. Lewis, 2015. "An assessment of accounting journal quality based on departmental lists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 315-332, January.
    9. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano & Anna Perotti & Andrea Proto, 2010. "Analysis of the ch-index: an indicator to evaluate the diffusion of scientific research output by citers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 203-217, October.
    10. John Panaretos & Chrisovaladis Malesios, 2009. "Assessing scientific research performance and impact with single indices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 635-670, December.
    11. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico A., 2010. "Analysis of the Hirsch index's operational properties," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 203(2), pages 494-504, June.
    12. Alonso, S. & Cabrerizo, F.J. & Herrera-Viedma, E. & Herrera, F., 2009. "h-Index: A review focused in its variants, computation and standardization for different scientific fields," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 273-289.
    13. Wade D. Cook & Tal Raviv & Alan J. Richardson, 2010. "Aggregating Incomplete Lists of Journal Rankings: An Application to Academic Accounting Journals," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(3), pages 217-235, September.
    14. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2010. "The Hirsch spectrum: A novel tool for analyzing scientific journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 64-73.
    15. Antonis Sidiropoulos & Dimitrios Katsaros & Yannis Manolopoulos, 2007. "Generalized Hirsch h-index for disclosing latent facts in citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(2), pages 253-280, August.
    16. Brown, Rhoda & Jones, Michael, 2015. "Mapping and exploring the topography of contemporary financial accounting research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 237-261.
    17. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    18. Themis Lazaridis, 2010. "Ranking university departments using the mean h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(2), pages 211-216, February.
    19. Massimo Franceschet, 2010. "A comparison of bibliometric indicators for computer science scholars and journals on Web of Science and Google Scholar," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(1), pages 243-258, April.
    20. Chan, Kam C. & Chan, Kam C. & Seow, Gim S. & Tam, Kinsun, 2009. "Ranking accounting journals using dissertation citation analysis: A research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 875-885, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:41:y:2009:i:4:p:227-239. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.