Giles, MW (Giles, Micheal W.); Garand, JC (Garand, James C.) Ranking political science journals: Reputational and citational approaches PS-POLITICAL SCIENCE & POLITICS, 40 (4): 741-751 OCT 2007

[Eugene Garfield]

Email Address: mgiles at emory.edu, pogara at lsu.edu

Author(s): Giles, MW (Giles, Micheal W.); Garand, JC (Garand, James C.) 

Title: Ranking political science journals: Reputational and citational 
approaches 

Source: PS-POLITICAL SCIENCE & POLITICS, 40 (4): 741-751 OCT 2007 

Excerpt: The citation-based impact scores suggest a far greater inequality 
among the journals of the discipline than do the reputation-based impact 
scores of Garrand and Giles (2003).  In the assessment of a scholarly 
record that occurs at both the individual and programmatic levels, 
balancing the quantity and quality of scholarship is frequently an issue.  
For example, junior faculty often want to know not only how many 
publications meet the minimum standards for promotion and tenure but if 
publishing more in lower-ranking journals is a better strategy than 
publishing less in higher-ranking journals.  Based solely on the impact an 
article has on future work as measured by the citation rankings, the 
answer is clear: no practically feasible quantity of publications in lower-
ranking journals can match the impact of a single publication in a top 10 
journal.  Publications in most academic journals in political science are 
stones that fall in to the pool of disciplinary discourse without causing 
a ripple.  They are lines on a resume without resonance.

A problem arises, however, when this fact is confused with an assessment 
of the quality of articles.  Citations are a direct measure of impact but 
measure the quality of an article only indirectly and imperfectly.  To the 
extent that there is a relationship between journal citations and quality 
is asymmetrical.  High journal impact may provide a reasonable basis for 
inferring high average article quality for a journal, but low impact does 
not provide a basis for inferring low quality.  This is the message 
conveyed by GG-Impact, a component of which is based directly on political 
scientists' assessment of journal quality.  On the quality evaluation, 
respondents only rated a handful of the journals below "5" (adequate) and 
then only barely so.  This may be the equivalent of grade inflation, but 
we not think so.  Journal reviewers do employ different standards when 
reviewing a manuscript submitted to a top-ranked journal like APSR, CP, or 
IO than when evaluating a manuscript for a lower-ranking journal.  These 
generally touch issues such as the generalizing of the findings, the 
methodological sophistication of the analyses, and the substantive and/or 
theroretical significance of the work.  We do not believe that reviewers 
are willing to accept manuscripts submitted to even low-ranking journals 
that are flawed in design, execution, or inference.  Thus, articles may 
appear in journals ranked low based on citations for a variety of reasons, 
but as the GG-Impact measure suggests, a publication in any of the 
journals in our list is recognition of sound scholarship and should be 
appropriately credited in the evaluation of scholarly records.  In the 
abscence of reputational measures directly assessing perceived journal 
quality we are concerned that this important distinction between quality 
and impact might be elided in practices of professional assessment.

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Keywords Plus: ECONOMICS JOURNALS; RELATIVE IMPACTS; MANAGEMENT 

Addresses: Emory Univ, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA; Louisiana State Univ, Baton 
Rouge, LA 70803 USA 

Reprint Address: Giles, MW, Emory Univ, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA. 

Cited Reference Count: 28 

Times Cited: 2 

Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS 

Publisher Address: 32 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, NY 10013-2473 USA 

ISSN: 1049-0965 

DOI: 10.1017/S1049096507071181 

29-char Source Abbrev.: PS-POLIT SCI POLIT 

ISO Source Abbrev.: PS-Polit. Sci. Polit. 

Source Item Page Count: 11 

Subject Category: Political Science 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 220AV 


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