Herrmann R, Berg E, Dabbert S, Pochtrager S, Salhofer K. "Going beyond Impact Factors: A survey-based journal ranking by agricultural economists" J. of Agricultural Economics 62(3):710-732 September 2011

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: Roland.Herrmann at agrar.uni-giessen.de  

TITLE : Going Beyond Impact Factors: A Survey-based Journal Ranking by 
Agricultural Economists  

Author(s): Herrmann, R (Herrmann, Roland)1; Berg, E (Berg, Ernst)2; Dabbert, 
S (Dabbert, Stephan)3; Pochtrager, S (Poechtrager, Siegfried)4; Salhofer, K 
(Salhofer, Klaus)5  

Source: JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS  Volume: 62   Issue: 3   
Pages: 710-732   Published: SEP 2011  

Abstract: A consistent and comprehensive ranking of journals relevant for 
agricultural economists cannot rely on impact factors for at least two major 
reasons: (i) the scientific database by Thomson Reuters, on which the 
standard impact factor is based, includes only a very limited number of 
relevant journals; (ii) the standard impact factor cannot be compared across 
research fields of different sizes. Survey-based journal rankings may overcome 
these problems. We report on such a survey-based ranking initiated by the 
Agricultural Economics Associations of Germany and Austria. Results of the 
ranking and a classification of journals, i. e. a rating, are provided for 160 
selected journals. Scientific quality is assessed by an index based on the 
researchers' perception of the quality standards of each journal and of the 
quality of its published articles. The survey-based ranking allows a much more 
comprehensive and consistent ranking than the impact factor, as specific 
agricultural economics journals can be directly compared with neighbouring 
economic and interdisciplinary journals to which agricultural economists submit 
their work. The low impact factors of core agricultural economics journals are 
put into perspective. The scientific quality of the top agricultural economics 
journals is assessed as being rather high and above most of the relevant 
interdisciplinary journals from agricultural and food sciences that are typically 
characterised by higher impact factors. Agricultural economists' perceptions 
on the scientific quality of the journals vary more across journals than 
perceptions of their relevance.  

Document Type: Article  
Language: English  
Author Keywords: Agricultural economics; Germany and Austria; impact factor; 
journal ranking; survey-based evaluation  
KeyWords Plus: CITATION ANALYSIS; RELATIVE IMPACTS; FIELDS; TIME  
Reprint Address: Herrmann, Roland (reprint author), Univ Giessen, Inst Agr 
Policy & Market Res, D-35390 Giessen, Germany  

Addresses: 
1. Univ Giessen, Inst Agr Policy & Market Res, D-35390 Giessen, Germany 
2. Univ Bonn, Inst Food & Resource Econ, D-5300 Bonn, Germany 
3. Univ Hohenheim, Dept Farm Management, D-7000 Stuttgart, Germany 
4. BOKU, Inst Mkt & Innovat, Vienna, Austria 
5. Tech Univ Munich, Enviromental & Agr Policy Grp, Munich, Germany  

E-mail Address: Roland.Herrmann at agrar.uni-giessen.de  

Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL, COMMERCE PLACE, 350 MAIN ST, MALDEN 
02148, MA USA, http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/  
Discipline: AGRICULTURE/AGRONOMY
ECONOMICS  
CC Editions/Collections: Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences (ABES); 
Social & Behavioral Sciences (SBS)  
ISI Document Delivery No: 804BU  
ISSN: 0021-857X