Journal Impact Ratings
Bill Starbuck and John Mezias
Editors note: These impact ratings were recently posted on
the Academy listservs. Bill was kind enough to let me reprint
them in TIP. I edited the original list of 359 down to the top
100 articles, plus those I believe would be of most interest to
TIP readers.
Here, once again, are the business-related journals ranked by
citations per article.
In SSCI Journal Citation Reports, the Institute for Scientific
Information summarizes the bibliographic citations in social science
journals. Among other statistics, this summary reports impact
factors. An impact factor is the average number of citations received
in one year by the articles that appeared during the two previous
years:
Citations in year t to articles published in t-1 or t-2
Articles published in years t-1 or t-2
For example, the 1990 impact factor for Psychological Review is
the average number of citations during the year 1990 to articles
the Review published during 1988 or 1989.
The attached list gives estimated citation rates for 359 journals
of interest to business scholars. The list is long partly to accommodate
the interests of different people, and partly to create a context
for focal journals.
The numbers are estimates based on the data from 1981-1993. Because
the raw data include random errors, smoothed data are generally
more accurate. Also, the most recent figures are two years old,
and strong trends have likely continued during the last two years.
Thus, I have used exponential smoothing both to remove some of
the random errors and to extrapolate the data up to 1995. That
is, the listed numbers are the citations each journal would have
during 1995 if the 1988-93 trends have continued through 1993
and 1994.
Exponential smoothing gives more weight to more recent data. I
varied the smoothing coefficients while comparing the actual outcomes
for 1990 with estimates generated from the 1981-89 data. The smallest
average errors occurred when (a) estimates of the current values
give 50% weight to the most recent observation, 25% weight to
the next most recent, 12.5% weight to the third most recent, and
so on, but (b) estimates of trends give nearly equal weight to
every observation. The estimates for 1995 use such weights. Because
the raw data have a lognormal distribution, I made all computations
with logarithms.
What Do Citation Rates Mean?
Citation rates measure visibility. They do not measure quality
or intellectual rigor as such. Journals low on the list may publish
high quality articles or uphold rigorous standards, but people
rarely cite the articles published in these journals. (One of
the journals I find most interesting is near the middle of the
list.)
Journals with larger circulations tend to receive more citations.
American journals tend to get more citations than foreign ones,
especially ones in foreign languages. These lower citation rates
afflict even British journals that have high standing in the United
Kingdom, such as the British Journal of Psychology and the Journal
of Management Studies.
Citation rates incorporate systematic biases arising from the
bibliographic practices in different fields. For example, articles
in applied psychology or management cite around 23 references
on the average. Articles in educational psychology or social psychology
cite around 29 references each, and articles in the general psychology
category cite around 35 references each. If articles cited only
other works in their own category, articles in general psychology
would receive half again as many citations per article as those
in management. This is roughly what happens. Articles in general
psychology average 1.2 citations, those in educational psychology
.8 citations, those in social psychology .6, and those in applied
psychology or management .5.
Therefore, I have also listed estimates that adjust for differences
across subject areas. These adjustments take account of both the
average numbers of citations per article in each area and the
average numbers of references per article in each area. However,
I have designed these corrections to remove only half of the average
difference between areas.
Estimated Estimated
Citations Citations
per Article Allowing
in 1995 for Area
Rank Journal (based on Norms 1981-93)
1 Economist 9.804 9.605
2 Psychol Rev 7.366 5.199
3 Annual Rev of Psychol 6.845 4.831
4 Psychol Bull 5.518 3.895
5 J Economic Literature 5.460 5.349
6 Admin Science Quart 5.404 6.109
7 Amer Psychologist 4.644 3.278
8 Academy of Mgmt Rev 3.954 4.470
9 Academy of Mgmt J 3.844 4.346
10 Environment & Planning D 3.739 5.389
11 J Abnormal Psychol 3.311 2.337
12 J Political Economy 3.275 3.209
13 Personnel Psychol 3.186 3.379
14 J Marketing 3.080 3.760
15 Quart J Econ 3.016 2.955
16 Rev Educational Resrch 2.857 2.918
17 Brookings Pap Econ Activity 2.796 2.739
18 J Finance 2.758 3.330
19 J Mgmt 2.695 3.046
20 Amer Sociological Rev 2.678 2.341
21 J Conflict Resolution 2.666 2.785
22 J Personality & Social Psychol 2.556 2.486
23 J Occupational Psychol 2.436 2.584
24 Reading Resrch Quart 2.406 2.073
25 J Marriage & Family 2.387 2.086
26 J Consumer Resrch 2.370 2.893
27 Econometrica 2.267 2.299
28 Harvard Business Rev 2.259 2.554
29 Ethology & SocioBiology 2.211 1.932
30 Philos & Public Affairs 2.206 1.928
31 Psychosomatic Medicine 2.191 1.546
32 Resrch in Orgnl Behavior 2.101 2.542
33 J Applied Psychol 2.095 2.222
34 Child Development 2.086 1.797
35 Amer Political Science Rev 1.984 1.793
36 J Expertl Social Psychol 1.916 1.588
37 Economics & Society 1.910 2.311
38 J Vocational Behavior 1.874 1.987
39 J Environ Econ & Mgmt 1.870 2.047
40 Amer J Sociology 1.864 1.629
41 J Counselling Psychol 1.849 1.770
42 J Sex Resrch 1.836 2.221
43 J Personality 1.709 1.662
44 J Educational Psychol 1.683 1.450
45 J Financial Econ 1.639 1.787
46 Personlty Social Psychol Bull 1.637 1.592
47 Rev Economic Studies 1.631 1.597
48 Strategic Mgmt J 1.629 1.842
49 Annual Rev of Anthropol 1.611 1.534
50 Amer Educational Resrch J 1.524 1.557
51 J Marketing Resrch 1.493 1.823
52 J Health & Social Behavior 1.487 1.661
53 Sociology of Education 1.474 1.288
54 Politics & Society 1.459 1.304
55 Sociology 1.451 1.268
56 Sociological Methods & Resrch 1.450 1.520
57 Amer Econ Rev 1.432 1.403
58 Orgnl Behav & Human Decision Proc 1.404 1.481
59 J Labor Econ 1.404 1.326
60 J Law & Econ 1.399 1.370
61 Progress in Planning 1.371 1.976
62 Economic Geography 1.363 1.335
63 Annual Rev of Sociology 1.323 1.157
64 Counselling Psychologist 1.318 1.398
65 Behav Genetics 1.283 0.905
66 Behav Resrch & Therapy 1.280 0.904
67 Inquiry 1.278 1.546
68 J Accounting Resrch 1.268 1.531
69 MIS Quart 1.260 1.318
70 Amer J Psychology 1.249 0.882
71 J Econometrics 1.228 1.245
72 Artificial Intelligence 1.207 1.438
73 Social Problems 1.203 1.051
74 Economic J 1.202 1.178
75 Amer Business Law J 1.198 1.463
76 Intl J Urban & Regional Resrch 1.188 1.164
77 J Abnormal Child Psychol 1.185 0.837
78 Social Forces 1.181 1.032
79 Indust & Labor Relat Rev 1.180 1.072
80 Legislative Stud Quart 1.175 1.062
81 Social Psychol Quart 1.164 1.132
82 Econ History Rev 1.144 1.121
83 Work & Occupations 1.105 0.966
84 British J Psychol 1.091 0.770
85 British J Indust Relat 1.085 0.986
86 Indust Relations 1.080 0.981
87 Marketing Science 1.052 1.284
88 Accounting Rev 1.049 1.267
89 European J Social Psychol 1.031 1.003
90 J Mathematical Psychol 1.024 1.074
91 Environment & Planning A 1.017 1.465
92 Amer Anthropologist 1.013 0.964
93 Meas Eval & Counsel Develop 1.010 0.967
94 Business History 0.996 1.216
95 British J Sociology 0.994 0.869
96 Hastings Center Report 0.988 0.863
97 J Business & Economic Statistics 0.985 0.998
98 J Politics 0.983 0.888
99 J Intl Business Studies 0.962 1.174
100 J Monetary Econ 0.952 1.150
103 J Personality Assessment 0.928 0.903
115 Human Factors 0.866 0.977
116 Policy Sciences 0.840 1.112
117 Organisation Studies 0.825 0.864
118 Sloan Mgmt Rev 0.824 0.932
119 Mgmt Science 0.821 0.860
142 Psychometrika 0.701 0.735
143 J Business 0.697 0.850
144 J Occupational & Organizl Psychol 0.692 0.734
147 Behav Inform Technol 0.675 0.805
154 Multivariate Behav Resrch 0.651 0.682
167 Human Relations 0.581 0.703
176 J Orgnl Behavior 0.559 0.593
181 J Mgmt Studies 0.534 0.603
206 Orgnl Dynamics 0.442 0.485
209 California Mgmt Rev 0.431 0.488
211 J Labor Resrch 0.423 0.384
213 Decision Sciences 0.418 0.437
214 Ergonomics 0.415 0.495
221 Applied Psychol (Intl Rev) 0.397 0.421
222 Applied Psychol Measurement 0.373 0.391
233 Intl J Information Mgmt 0.334 0.349
245 Intl J Man-Machine Studies 0.293 0.270
246 J Educational Measurmt 0.293 0.281
251 Interfaces 0.265 0.277
252 Teaching of Psychol 0.264 0.227
255 Educational & Psychol Measurement 0.261 0.277
260 Work and Stress 0.255 0.180
261 Resrch Mgmt 0.252 0.285
264 Fortune 0.245 0.299
272 European J Marketing 0.231 0.282
274 J Theory of Social Behav 0.230 0.223
280 Public Finance Quart 0.225 0.271
281 Applied Ergonomics 0.224 0.267
325 Personnel 0.100 0.106
327 Simulation & Gaming 0.100 0.097
338 Habitat International 0.079 0.114
339 Managerial & Decision Economics 0.078 0.085
345 Personnel J 0.063 0.067
359 Abacus 0.001 0.001
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