IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v46y2017i10p1707-1722.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Journal rankings in management and business studies: What rules do we play by?

Author

Listed:
  • Vogel, Rick
  • Hattke, Fabian
  • Petersen, Jessica

Abstract

Given the growing importance of journal rankings in academic performance management, it is relevant to researchers and managers alike whether there are certain characteristics of publications that are more prevalent the higher a journal is ranked. This paper examines how tangible and adaptable characteristics of papers vary between different rating categories of journals and what the drivers of publication in journals at the top of rankings are. We build on a bibliometric analysis of more than 85,000 papers published in 168 management and business journals as rated in 18 popular journal rankings. Results refute some often repeated but rarely substantiated criticisms of journal rankings. Contrary to many voices, we find that interdisciplinarity and innovativeness are positively associated with publication in highly ranked journals. In other respects, our results support more critical assumptions, such as a widespread preference for quantitative methods. By providing more evidence on the implicit standards of journal rankings, this study expands on the understanding of what intended or unintended incentives they provide and how to use them responsibly.

Suggested Citation

  • Vogel, Rick & Hattke, Fabian & Petersen, Jessica, 2017. "Journal rankings in management and business studies: What rules do we play by?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1707-1722.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:46:y:2017:i:10:p:1707-1722
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2017.07.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733317301130
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2017.07.001?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. Chia-Lin Chang & Michael McAleer, 2013. "Ranking journal quality by harmonic mean of ranks: an application to ISI statistics & probability," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 67(1), pages 27-53, February.
    2. Timothy Clark & Mike Wright, 2007. "Reviewing Journal Rankings and Revisiting Peer Reviews: Editorial Perspectives," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 612-621, June.
    3. Clément Bosquet & Pierre-Philippe Combes, 2013. "Are academics who publish more also more cited? Individual determinants of publication and citation records," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(3), pages 831-857, December.
    4. Hanna-Mari Puuska & Reetta Muhonen & Yrjö Leino, 2014. "International and domestic co-publishing and their citation impact in different disciplines," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 823-839, February.
    5. John Hudson & David N. Laband, 2013. "Using and Interpreting Journal Rankings: Introduction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0, pages 199-201, August.
    6. Per O. Seglen, 1994. "Causal relationship between article citedness and journal impact," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 45(1), pages 1-11, January.
    7. M. M. Kessler, 1963. "Bibliographic coupling between scientific papers," American Documentation, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 10-25, January.
    8. Timothy Clark & Steven W. Floyd & Mike Wright, 2013. "In Search of the Impactful and the Interesting: Swings of the Pendulum?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1358-1373, December.
    9. Hodgson, Geoffrey M & Rothman, Harry, 1999. "The Editors and Authors of Economics Journals: A Case of Institutional Oligopoly?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(453), pages 165-186, February.
    10. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & Hessels, Laurens K., 2011. "Factors associated with disciplinary and interdisciplinary research collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 463-472, April.
    11. Francisco José Acedo & Carmen Barroso & Cristóbal Casanueva & José Luis Galán, 2006. "Co‐Authorship in Management and Organizational Studies: An Empirical and Network Analysis," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 957-983, July.
    12. Kaplan, Robert S., 1986. "The role for empirical research in management accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 11(4-5), pages 429-452, July.
    13. Rinia, E. J. & van Leeuwen, Th. N. & van Vuren, H. G. & van Raan, A. F. J., 2001. "Influence of interdisciplinarity on peer-review and bibliometric evaluations in physics research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 357-361, March.
    14. Werner Marx & Lutz Bornmann, 2016. "Change of perspective: bibliometrics from the point of view of cited references—a literature overview on approaches to the evaluation of cited references in bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1397-1415, November.
    15. Clément Bosquet & Pierre-Philippe Combes, 2013. "Are academics who publish more also more cited? Individual determinants of publication and citation records," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(3), pages 831-857, December.
    16. Ofer H. Azar & David M. Brock, 2008. "A Citation‐Based Ranking of Strategic Management Journals," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 781-802, September.
    17. Mingers, John & Xu, Fang, 2010. "The drivers of citations in management science journals," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(2), pages 422-430, September.
    18. Frederic S. Lee & Bruce C. Cronin & Scott McConnell & Erik Dean, 2010. "Research Quality Rankings of Heterodox Economic Journals in a Contested Discipline," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(5), pages 1409-1452, November.
    19. Grit Laudel & Gloria Origgi, 2006. "Introduction to a special issue on the assessment of interdisciplinary research," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 2-4, April.
    20. Haridimos Tsoukas, 2008. "Developing a Global Journal: Embracing Otherness," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Yehuda Baruch & Alison M. Konrad & Herman Aguinis & William H. Starbuck (ed.), Opening the Black Box of Editorship, chapter 17, pages 167-175, Palgrave Macmillan.
    21. Jeffrey Pfeffer, 1995. "Mortality, Reproducibility, and the Persistence of Styles of Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(6), pages 681-686, December.
    22. Stremersch, Stefan & Camacho, Nuno & Vanneste, Sofie & Verniers, Isabel, 2015. "Unraveling scientific impact: Citation types in marketing journals," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 64-77.
    23. Alfred Kieser & Lars Leiner, 2009. "Why the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research Is Unbridgeable," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 516-533, May.
    24. Stuart Macdonald & Jacqueline Kam, 2007. "Ring a Ring o’ Roses: Quality Journals and Gamesmanship in Management Studies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 640-655, June.
    25. Leydesdorff, Loet & Wagner, Caroline S., 2008. "International collaboration in science and the formation of a core group," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 317-325.
    26. Mats Alvesson & Jörgen Sandberg, 2013. "Has Management Studies Lost Its Way? Ideas for More Imaginative and Innovative Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 128-152, January.
    27. Donald deB. Beaver, 2004. "Does collaborative research have greater epistemic authority?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 399-408, August.
    28. Rafols, Ismael & Leydesdorff, Loet & O’Hare, Alice & Nightingale, Paul & Stirling, Andy, 2012. "How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1262-1282.
    29. Iman Tahamtan & Askar Safipour Afshar & Khadijeh Ahamdzadeh, 2016. "Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1195-1225, June.
    30. Dag W Aksnes, 2003. "Characteristics of highly cited papers," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 159-170, December.
    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. Bryce, Cormac & Dowling, Michael & Lucey, Brian, 2020. "The journal quality perception gap," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    2. Zeynep Didem Unutmaz Durmuşoğlu & Alptekin Durmuşoğlu, 2021. "A TOPSIS model for understanding the authors choice of journal selection," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 521-543, January.
    3. Amitabh Anand & Louise Brøns Kringelum & Charlotte Øland Madsen & Louisa Selivanovskikh, 2020. "Interorganizational learning: a bibliometric review and research agenda," Post-Print hal-02870017, HAL.
    4. Domingo Docampo & Vicente Safón, 2021. "Journal ratings: a paper affiliation methodology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 8063-8090, September.
    5. Becker, Albrecht & Lukka, Kari, 2023. "Instrumentalism and the publish-or-perish regime," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Eleftheriou, Konstantinos & Polemis, Michael, 2020. "One list to fit them all: What do we learn from journal ranking?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    7. Mario Fernandes & Andreas Walter, 2023. "The times they are a-changin’: profiling newly tenured business economics professors in Germany over the past thirty years," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(5), pages 929-971, July.
    8. Yves Fassin, 2021. "Does the Financial Times FT50 journal list select the best management and economics journals?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5911-5943, July.
    9. Roberto Fernández‐Gago & Laura Cabeza‐García & José‐Luis Godos‐Díez, 2020. "How significant is corporate social responsibility to business research?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1809-1817, July.
    10. Osterloh, Margit & Frey, Bruno S., 2020. "How to avoid borrowed plumes in academia," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    11. Kaltrina Nuredini, 2021. "Investigating Altmetric Information For The Top 1000 Journals From Handelsblatt Ranking In Economic And Business Studies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 1315-1343, December.
    12. Yoon, Hyungseok & Belkhouja, Mustapha & Wei, Yingqi & Lee, Sangho, 2021. "Born to be similar? Global isomorphism and the emergence of latecomer business schools," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    13. Auschra, Carolin & Bartosch, Julia & Lohmeyer, Nora, 2022. "Differences in female representation in leading management and organization journals: Establishing a benchmark," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(3).
    14. Vicente Safón & Domingo Docampo, 2020. "Analyzing the impact of reputational bias on global university rankings based on objective research performance data: the case of the Shanghai Ranking (ARWU)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2199-2227, December.
    15. Gehrig, Thomas & Stenbacka, Rune, 2021. "Journal competition and the quality of published research: Simultaneous versus sequential screening," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    16. Li Hou & Qiang Wu & Yundong Xie, 2022. "Does early publishing in top journals really predict long-term scientific success in the business field?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6083-6107, November.
    17. Civera, Alice & Lehmann, Erik E. & Paleari, Stefano & Stockinger, Sarah A.E., 2020. "Higher education policy: Why hope for quality when rewarding quantity?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).
    18. Matías Ginieis & Xiaoni Li, 2020. "Ranking of Sustainability Journals Using the Author Affiliation Index and Comparison to Other Journal Metrics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, February.
    19. Hans van Dijk & Marino van Zelst, 2020. "Comfortably Numb? Researchers’ Satisfaction with the Publication System and a Proposal for Radical Change," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-20, March.
    20. Chris Wagner, 2020. "Deducing a state-of-the-art presentation of the Eclectic Paradigm from four decades of development: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 51-96, February.
    21. Eleftheriou, Konstantinos & Polemis, Michael, 2019. "Convergence or divergence in finance journal ranking?," MPRA Paper 93528, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    22. Roshni Das, 2024. "What do we know about High Performance Work Systems? A bibliometric summary of 30 years of research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 415-438, February.
    23. Konstantinos Eleftheriou & Patroklos Patsoulis & Michael Polemis, 2023. "Convergence among academic journals in accounting: a note," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(2), pages 1055-1069, February.

    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. Mingyang Wang & Zhenyu Wang & Guangsheng Chen, 2019. "Which can better predict the future success of articles? Bibliometric indices or alternative metrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1575-1595, June.
    2. Iman Tahamtan & Askar Safipour Afshar & Khadijeh Ahamdzadeh, 2016. "Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1195-1225, June.
    3. 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).
    4. Shen, Hongquan & Cheng, Ying & Ju, Xiufang & Xie, Juan, 2022. "Rethinking the effect of inter-gender collaboration on research performance for scholars," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    5. Martorell Cunil, Onofre & Otero González, Luis & Durán Santomil, Pablo & Mulet Forteza, Carlos, 2023. "How to accomplish a highly cited paper in the tourism, leisure and hospitality field," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Liu, Qiuling & Guo, Lei & Sun, Yiping & Ren, Linlin & Wang, Xinhua & Han, Xiaohui, 2024. "Do scholars' collaborative tendencies impact the quality of their publications? A generalized propensity score matching analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    7. Francesco Giovanni Avallone & Alberto Quagli & Paola Ramassa, 2022. "Interdisciplinary research by accounting scholars: An exploratory study," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(2), pages 5-34.
    8. Rafols, Ismael & Leydesdorff, Loet & O’Hare, Alice & Nightingale, Paul & Stirling, Andy, 2012. "How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1262-1282.
    9. Kong, Ling & Wang, Dongbo, 2020. "Comparison of citations and attention of cover and non-cover papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    10. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2018. "Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses, and Impacts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(1), pages 115-156, March.
    11. Katarina Zigova, 2017. "Specifying Social Weight Matrices of Researcher Networks: The Case of Academic Economists," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2017-10, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    12. Shen, Hongquan & Xie, Juan & Ao, Weiyi & Cheng, Ying, 2022. "The continuity and citation impact of scientific collaboration with different gender composition," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    13. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    14. H. Kent Baker & Satish Kumar & Kirti Goyal & Prashant Gupta, 2023. "International journal of finance and economics: A bibliometric overview," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 9-46, January.
    15. Jessica Petersen & Fabian Hattke & Rick Vogel, 2017. "Editorial governance and journal impact: a study of management and business journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1593-1614, September.
    16. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Nicola Melluso & Francesco Alessandro Massucci, 2022. "Exploring the antecedents of interdisciplinarity at the European Research Council: a topic modeling approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 6961-6991, December.
    17. Shogo Katoh & Rick (H.L.) Aalbers & Shintaro Sengoku, 2021. "Effects and Interactions of Researcher’s Motivation and Personality in Promoting Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    18. Juan Xie & Kaile Gong & Jiang Li & Qing Ke & Hyonchol Kang & Ying Cheng, 2019. "A probe into 66 factors which are possibly associated with the number of citations an article received," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1429-1454, June.
    19. Copiello, Sergio, 2019. "Peer and neighborhood effects: Citation analysis using a spatial autoregressive model and pseudo-spatial data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 238-254.
    20. Stefano Mammola & Elena Piano & Alberto Doretto & Enrico Caprio & Dan Chamberlain, 2022. "Measuring the influence of non-scientific features on citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(7), pages 4123-4137, July.

    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:respol:v:46:y:2017:i:10:p:1707-1722. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    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.