Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Chia-Lin Chang
Author-Email: changchialin@nchu.edu.tw
Author-Person: pch286 
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Applied Economics, Department of Finance, National Chung Hsing University
	Taichung, Taiwan
Author-Name: Esfandiar Maasoumi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Emory University
Author-Name: Michael McAleer
Author-Person: pmc90 
Author-Workplace-Name: Econometric Institute, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute,
	The Netherlands, Department of Quantitative Economics, Complutense University of Madrid, and Institute of
	Economic Research, Kyoto University
Title: Robust Ranking of Journal Quality: An Application to Economics
Abstract: The paper focuses on the robustness of rankings of academic journal quality and research
	impact in general, and in Economics, in particular, based on the widely-used Thomson
	Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). The paper analyses 299 leading
	international journals in Economics using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures
	(RAMs), and highlights the similarities and differences in various RAMs, which are based on
	alternative transformations of citations. All existing RAMs to date have been static, so two
	new dynamic RAMs are developed to capture changes in impact factor over time and
	escalating journal self citations. Alternative RAMs may be calculated annually or updated
	daily to determine When, Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited (see Chang
	et al. (2011a, b, c)). The RAMs are grouped in four distinct classes that include impact factor,
	mean citations and non-citations, journal policy, number of high quality papers, and journal
	influence and article influence. These classes include the most widely used RAMs, namely
	the classic 2-year impact factor including journal self citations (2YIF), 2-year impact factor
	excluding journal self citations (2YIF*), 5-year impact factor including journal self citations
	(5YIF), Eigenfactor (or Journal Influence), Article Influence, h-index, and PI-BETA (Papers
	Ignored - By Even The Authors). As all existing RAMs to date have been static, two new
	dynamic RAMs are developed to capture changes in impact factor over time (5YD2 =
	5YIF/2YIF) and Escalating Self Citations. We highlight robust rankings based on the
	harmonic mean of the ranks of RAMs across the 4 classes. It is shown that emphasizing the
	2-year impact factor of a journal, which partly answers the question as to When published
	papers are cited, to the exclusion of other informative RAMs, which answer Where and How
	(frequently) published papers are cited, can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal quality,
	impact and influence relative to the harmonic mean of the ranks.
Classification-JEL: C18, C81, Y10.
Keywords: Research assessment measures, Impact factor, IFI, C3PO, PI-BETA, STAR, Eigenfactor, Article Influence, 
	h-index, 5YD2, ESC, harmonic mean of the ranks, economics, journal rankings.
Length: 53 pages 
Creation-Date: 2012 
Revision-Date: 2012-03 
Number: 2012-05 
X-File-Ref: http://america.sim.ucm.es/repec/ucm/ref/doicae1205.txt
File-URL: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/14791/1/1205.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:ucm:doicae:1205