journal rankings

[Dominik Wujastyk]

I'm sure I'm not alone in watching with anxiety the growth of importance 
in science publishing of journal ranking and "impact factors" such as 
citation counts.  At the same time, many of us feel relief that these 
mechanisms have not yet had any major effect on our field.

One can understand why bureaucrats are interested in these features, and 
to some extent we are all affected.  Some journals do appear to have more 
circulation and impact than others.  It's an easy argument to win that 
circulation = importance.  But the counter-argument is that this leads to 
the famous Wildean definition of a cynic, as the man who "knows the price 
of everything and the value of nothing".  After all, the biggest 
circulation publication in Britain (BY FAR) is the racist, pornographic, 
sexist, sensationalist Sun ("FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER"): but would we 
want that measure to be used in assessing the work of universities?

Lars has also quite rightly stated some of the dangers and deleterious 
side-effects of this type of metrication.  The under-valuing of 
third-world journal publications is a chronic and reasonably 
widely-recognised problem.

All this is yet another example of the reach of the audit culture over 
academic matters.  And this in itself is a sign that finance and 
decision-making are now almost completely controlled by a separate cadre 
of people who are not deeply educated in the matters that they administer. 
Lacking the training to come to informed decisions about scholarly 
matters, they do require some criteria by which to get a grasp on what 
they control, and hence the rise of the audit culture.

For those who may not know it already, there was a fine analysis of some 
of these issues by a couple of anthropologists published in 1999:

Audit Culture and Anthropology: Neo-Liberalism in British Higher Education
Cris Shore; Susan Wright
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5, No. 4.
   Dec., 1999), pp. 557-575.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1359-0987%28199912%295%3A4%3C557%3AACAANI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q

This article stirred up controversy, and discussion continued in the pages 
of the JRAI in later issues.  I recommend it strongly if you haven't read 
it already.

-- 
Dr Dominik Wujastyk
Senior Research Fellow
University College London
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed



On Tue, 25 Sep 2007, Lars Martin Fosse wrote:

> Such ranking is used at the university of Oslo (and also other Norwegian
> universities, I believe). It applies not only to Indology etc. but to all
> subjects taught at our universities.
>
> The ranking system is incredibly annoying, because publishing in the "best"
> journals gives higher prestige and more money in the till. This means that
> less illustrious journals, where e.g. Indologists might like to publish as a
> matter of solidarity og good academic politics, easily get marginalized. I
> had to deal with this nonsense when I was lecturer in Oslo a couple of years
> ago, and I found it extremely exasperating. It is another bureaucratic
> attack on scholarly independence and good common sense.
>
> When you apply for a job, the locus of publication should in principle not
> matter. But when you apply for research money, or your department does, it
> does matter. Avoid such ranking at all costs!
>
> Lars Martin Fosse
>
>
>
> 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
>> Mark Allon
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 5:58 AM
>> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
>> Subject: journal rankings
>>
>> Dear Indology list members,
>>
>>
>>
>> Australia is attempting to adopt a ranking system for
>> journals so that our publications and academic output can be
>> "graded" (with consequences for university funding). If any
>> of you know of such rankings currently in place for journals
>> relevant to Indology, Buddhist Studies, and Asian Studies,
>> please let me know.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr Mark Allon
>>
>> Department of Indian Subcontinental Studies
>>
>> University of Sydney
>>
>> Brennan MacCallum Building A18
>>
>> Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
>>
>> Phone 02-93513891; fax 02-93512319
>>
>>
>