Abstract
Names of journals falling in the areas of anthropology, economics, geography, history, philosophy, political science, and sociology were mailed to department chairpersons in these disciplines in U.S. and Canadian universities. Chairpersons were asked to assign numerical ratings using a 1–5 point scale in order to represent the quality of those journals they were familiar with. They were also asked to add journals which they thought should have been included in the original list. The resulting data provide (1) a basis for classifying journals into categories representing their visibility relative to other journals within a particular discipline, and (2) provide average rankings of quality for individual journals. The paper also reviews options generally available in assessing journal quality and describes possible use of such data in the context of the university, particularly in respect to personnel decisions.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Baughman, J. C. A structural analysis of the literature of sociology.The Library Quarterly 1974,44 293–308.
Chubin, D. On the use of the Science Citation Index in sociology.The American Sociologist 1973,8 187–191.
Cole, J., and Cole, S. Measuring the quality of sociological research: problems in the use of the Science Citation Index.The American Sociologist 1971,6 23–29.
Garfield, E. Citation indexes in sociological and historical research.American Documentation, 1963, 289–291.
Glenn, N. D. American sociologists' evaluations of sixty-three journals.The American Sociologist 1971,6 298–303.
Line, M. B. The influence of the type of sources used on the results of citation analysis.The Journal of Documentation 1979,35 265–284.
Mace, K. C., and Warner, H. D. Ratings of psychology journals.American Psychologist, February 1973, 184–186.
Martyn, J. Citation analysis.The Journal of Documentation 1975,31 290–297.
McAllister, P. R., Anderson, R. C., and Narin, F. Comparison of peer and citation assessment of the influence of scientific journals.Journal of the American Society for Information Science 1980,31 147–152.
Rushton, J. P., and Roediger III, H. L. An evaluation of 80 psychology journals based on the Science Citation Index.American Psychologist 1978,33 520–523.
Singleton, A. Journal ranking and selection: a review in physics.Journal of Documentation 1976,32 258–289.
Sussman, M. B.Author's guide to journals in sociology and related fields. New York: Haworth Press, 1978.
Teevan, J. J. Journal prestige and quality of sociological articles.The American Sociologist 1980,15 109–112.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nelson, T.M., Buss, A.R. & Katzko, M. Rating of scholarly journals by chairpersons in the social sciences. Res High Educ 19, 469–497 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01418448
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01418448