Determining the "top journals" in a field?

[Brenda L Battleson]

I think that the primary reason for such a discrepancy is the nature of 
the LIS journals. With the advent of informatics, especially medical 
informatics, there seems to be an increasing divergence of the 
"information science" part of LIS. Whereas the journals listed in the 
Nisonger and Davis article are focused in the areas of library research 
and practice, those with the highest impact factors in JCR heavily lean 
towards information science.

Consider the citing journals of the top ten LIS journals listed in JCR 
by impact factor: I'm admittedly "eyeballing" the lists, but it is 
obvious that a significant proportion of citing journals come from 
outside of LIS. (This is especially true in the area of medical 
informatics.) When we examine the journal titles listed in Nisonger and 
Davis, we see that for the most part, the citing journals fall primarily 
within LIS. Closer examination suggests that most of these cited and 
citing titles tend to have a "practitioner" rather than "research" 
focus. With such a specialized scope, there would be little interest 
beyond LIS, which is reflected by the relatively low impact factors for 
these titles.

Given the recent growth of ISchools and informatics programs, It would 
be interesting to replicate the Nisonger-Davis study (itself a 
replication of the Kohl-Davis study) once again to see if the 
relationship between journal prestige perceptions of LIS deans and those 
of ARL library directors have changed. Furthermore, are there any 
differences in the perceptions of ISchool deans as compared to more 
traditional LIS program deans? And how does all of this compare to JCR?    

Best,

-Brenda

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Brenda L. Battleson
Visiting Assistant Professor
University at Buffalo
Dept. of Library and Info. Studies
522 Baldy Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1020
USA
Ph: (716) 645-2412 x1210
blb at buffalo.edu
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B.G. Sloan wrote:
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> Someone recently asked me about the “top journals” in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The question concerned the best journals to publish in for promotion and tenure purposes.
>
> My first reaction was to go to the JCR and sort the journals in the “Information and Library Science” subject category by impact factor. But I was also reminded of Nisonger and Davis and their 2005 paper “The Perception of Library and Information Science Journals by LIS Education Deans and ARL Library Directors: A Replication of the Kohl–Davis Study”. Table 2 in that paper shows the “Average Rating of Journal Prestige in Terms of Value for Tenure and Promotion” by deans at schools of library and information science.
>
> I compared the top ten journals from Table 2 in the Nisonger and Davis paper with the top ten journals in the field ranked by the JCR 5-year impact factor. I was surprised to find that there was very little overlap between the rankings. The #1 journal on the deans’ rankings (JASIST) did not make the top ten in the JCR. The journal overwhelmingly ranked #1 by impact factor (MIS Quarterly) barely made the deans’ top ten list. Only three journals (ARIST, MIS Quarterly, and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association) appear on both lists. ARIST was the most consistent, being 6th on the deans’ list, 4th in 2007 impact factor, and 5th in 5-year impact factor. The journals in the sixth through tenth positions of the JCR rankings fared especially poorly in the deans’ list, ranking 43rd, 50th, 63rd, 31st, and 51st,  respectively.
>
> At first I suspected a possible geographical bias since the LIS deans surveyed by Nisonger and Davis were all at North American LIS schools, and the JCR has more of an international flavor. But the JCR list has six journals published in the US, and the deans’ list has seven US-based journals. Indeed, the top five journals in the JCR rankings are all US-based, where only three of the top five journals in the deans’ list are US-based.
>
> I’m probably missing something here, as this isn’t exactly my forte. Just wondering what you all would do if you came up with two very different lists of “top journals” in a field? What would you tell someone who wanted to know the “best” journals to publish in for promotion and tenure purposes?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Bernie Sloan
> Sora Associates
> Bloomington, IN
>
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