Lee, FS; Grijalva, TC; Nowell, C. 2010. Ranking Economics Departments in a Contested Discipline: A Bibliometric Approach to Quality Equality Between Theoretically Distinct Subdisciplines. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY 69 (5): 1345-1375

[Eugene Garfield]

Lee, FS; Grijalva, TC; Nowell, C. 2010. Ranking Economics Departments in a 
Contested Discipline: A Bibliometric Approach to Quality Equality Between 
Theoretically Distinct Subdisciplines. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND 
SOCIOLOGY 69 (5): 1345-1375..

Author Full Name(s): Lee, Frederic S.; Grijalva, Therese C.; Nowell, Clifford
Language: English
Document Type: Article
KeyWords Plus: IMPACT; US; EXPERTISE; CORE

Abstract: P>Quality ranking of economic journals and departments is a 
widespread practice in the United States. The methods used are peer review 
and bibliometric measures. In a divided discipline such as economics scientific 
knowledge is contested. So knowing which journals and departments are the 
best in terms of research is somewhat muddied. If the methods used to 
measure the production of quality scientific knowledge are tilted towards one of 
the contested approaches, the resulting quality rankings of journals and 
departments are tilted as well. So if the objective is the open-minded pursuit of 
the production of scientific knowledge, then it is important to have measures of 
quality that treat the different contested approaches equally. Our article 
explores this issue by examining the impact that a quality-equality bibliometric 
measure can have on the quality rankings of doctoral economic programs in the 
United States.

Addresses: [Lee, Frederic S.] UM Kansas City, Dept Econ, Kansas City, MO 
64110 USA; [Grijalva, Therese C.; Nowell, Clifford] Weber State Univ, Dept 
Econ, Ogden, UT 84408 USA

Reprint Address: Lee, FS, UM Kansas City, Dept Econ, Kansas City, MO 64110 
USA.

E-mail Address: leefs at umkc.edu; tgrijalva at weber.edu; cnowell at weber.edu
ISSN: 0002-9246
DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00749.x
fulltext: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1536-
7150.2010.00749.x/abstract