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: 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: Ranking Journal Quality by Harmonic Mean of Ranks: An Application to ISI Statistics & Probability
Abstract: As the preponderance of journal rankings becomes increasingly more frequent and prominent in academic 
	decision making, such rankings in broad discipline categories is taking on an increasingly important role. 
	The paper focuses on the robustness of rankings of academic journal quality and research impact using on 
	the widely-used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI) for the Statistics & Probability 
	category. The paper analyses 110 ISI international journals in Statistics & Probability using quantifiable 
	Research Assessment Measures (RAMs), and highlights the similarities and differences in various RAMs, which 
	are based on alternative transformations of citations and influence. 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), Chang et al. (2012)). 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, PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), 5YD2 (= 5YIF/2YIF) as a measure 
	of citations longevity, and Escalating Self Citations (ESC) as a measure of increasing journal self citations. 
	The paper highlights robust rankings based on the harmonic mean of the ranks of RAMs across the 4 classes. 
	It is shown that focusing solely on the 2-year impact factor (2YIF) 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 more robust harmonic mean of the ranks.
Classification-JEL: C18, C43, 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, Statistics & Probability, robust journal rankings.
Note: The authors wish to thank Philip Hans Franses and Essie Maasoumi for helpful discussions. For financial support,
	the first author wishes to thank the National Science Council, Taiwan, and the second author wishes to 
	acknowledge the Australian Research Council, National Science Council, Taiwan, and the Japan Society for 
	the Promotion of Science.
Length: 34 pages 
Creation-Date: 2012-05
Number: 2012-12 
X-File-Ref: http://america.sim.ucm.es/repec/ucm/ref/doicae1212.txt
File-URL: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/15419/1/1212.pdf
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Handle: RePEc:ucm:doicae:1212