journal rankings

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Simon's concern about Indian students etc. was certainly also part of my
concern, but I would also like to point out that with such a ranking system,
founding a new journal will be far more difficult. Scholars should insist
that the ONLY valid criterium of quality for a published paper or book is
the paper or the book itself. Where it is published, and how it is published
should be of less relevance. 

The underlying assumption of the bureaucracy seems to be that as soon as a
person has achieved tenure, s/he, given half a chance, will spend the rest
of his/her professional life publishing shoddy, substandard material in
third quality journals. There is, in my opinion, an implicit insult to
scholars in this. Quality assurance is a concept borrowed from industry, and
the industrial model is to an ever larger degree encroaching upon academia.
Having worked both in bureaucracy and industry, I'd be the first to admit
that we can learn certain things from these spheres of activity. But
academia is really sui generis, and the industrial model cannot be imposed
upon academic work without doing grievous harm to its soul. To achieve
outstanding results, you need freedom, and therefore you need to tolerate a
certain amount of less glorious work. The regimentation that is now taking
place in academia will only lead to a fear of intellectual risk taking and
thus to mediocrity, not to mention that academics are losing freedom of
choice and action to an increasing degree. In Oslo, research funds are now
only given to larger projects, not to individuals, which means that you have
to device a personal project that fits into a larger framework. For small
subjects, this is catastrophic. A Sanskritist would for instance have to
come up with a project that fits into an overarching theme where also
South-Asianists, Hindi and Urdu scholars fit in. I have seen how this works
in practice, and it is utterly hopeless.  

Lars Martin

 

From: 
Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse 
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114, 
0674 Oslo - Norway 
Phone: +47 22 32 12 19 Fax:  +47 850 21 250 
Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45 
E-mail: lmfosse at chello.no 
http://www.linguistfinder.com/translators.asp?id=2164



 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of 
> Simon Brodbeck
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 11:58 AM
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: journal rankings
> 
> Dear Mark,
> 
> I wholeheartedly concur with Lars Martin's sentiments. 
> Whenever I have come across ranking lists for journals and 
> publishers in our subject, those which produce materials in a 
> form affordable to Indian students, scholars and universities 
> tend to not to feature near the top of the list. The 
> consequences of this for 'international scholarship' are not 
> hard to imagine or discern.
> 
> Yours truly, Simon Brodbeck.