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Misleading Rankings of Research in Business

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  • Sönke Albers

Abstract

The attempts by Schulze and colleagues and Ritzberger to develop a joint ranking of journals for economics and business research are critically evaluated. Their lists suggest that the quality of top business journals is substantially lower than that of many economics journals. If, however, the authors of these lists do not want to claim a general superiority of one discipline (economics) over another one (business), they should give a clear indication that these lists are only applicable for economists. This warning appears to be necessary because Fabel and colleagues derive a ranking of universities and departments with respect to research productivity in business from the business research discriminating list RbR_IMP by Schulze and colleagues. While Diamantopoulos and Wagner already show a lack of face validity of these results, this article explains that the reason for this lies not only in the downgrading and also biased weighting of the business journals across subfields, but even more importantly, in a remarkable incompleteness of the database. Copyright 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation Verein für Socialpolitik and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Sönke Albers, 2009. "Misleading Rankings of Research in Business," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10, pages 352-363, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:10:y:2009:i::p:352-363
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Oliver Fabel & Miriam Hein & Robert Hofmeister, 2008. "Research Productivity in Business Economics: An Investigation of Austrian, German and Swiss Universities," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9, pages 506-531, November.
    2. Heinrich W. Ursprung, 2003. "Schneewittchen im Land der Klapperschlangen: Evaluation eines Evaluators," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 4(2), pages 177-190, May.
    3. Fabel Oliver & Hein Miriam & Hofmeister Robert, 2008. "Research Productivity in Business Economics: An Investigation of Austrian, German and Swiss Universities," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 506-531, December.
    4. Klaus Ritzberger, 2008. "A Ranking of Journals in Economics and Related Fields," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9, pages 402-430, November.
    5. Günther G. Schulze & Susanne Warning & Christian Wiermann, 2008. "Zeitschriftenrankings für die Wirtschaftswissenschaften – Konstruktion eines umfassenden Metaindexes," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(3), pages 286-305, August.
    6. Bruno S. Frey & Katja Rost, 2010. "Do rankings reflect research quality?," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 13, pages 1-38, May.
    7. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:1:y:2004:i:3:p:1-6 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Müller, Harry, 2012. "Die Zitationshäufigkeit als Qualitätsindikator im Rahmen der Forschungsleistungsmessung," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 1/2012, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    2. Bielecki, Andre & Albers, Sönke, 2012. "Eine Analyse der Forschungseffizienz deutscher betriebswirtschaftlicher Fachbereiche basierend auf den Daten des Centrums für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE)," EconStor Preprints 57429, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Margit Osterloh & Bruno S. Frey, 2009. "Research Governance in Academia: Are there Alternatives to Academic Rankings?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    4. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre (Ed.), 2010. "Jahresbericht 2009," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 650, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    5. Margit Osterloh & Bruno S. Frey, 2010. "Academic rankings and research governance," IEW - Working Papers 482, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    6. Oliver Fabel & Miriam Hein & Robert Hofmeister, 2009. "Research Productivity in Business Economics: A Second Reply," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(3), pages 372-374, August.
    7. Margit Osterloh & Bruno S. Frey, 2015. "Ranking Games," Evaluation Review, , vol. 39(1), pages 102-129, February.
    8. Dilger, Alexander & Müller, Harry, 2011. "Ein Forschungsleistungsranking auf der Grundlage von Google Scholar," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 12/2011, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    9. Justus Haucap & Johannes Muck, 2015. "What drives the relevance and reputation of economics journals? An update from a survey among economists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(3), pages 849-877, June.
    10. Matthias Meyer & Rüdiger W. Waldkirch & Michael A. Zaggl, 2012. "Relative Performance Measurement of Researchers: The Impact of Data Source Selection," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 64(4), pages 308-330, October.
    11. Günther G. Schulze & Susanne Warning, 2009. "Misleading Rankings of Research in Business: A Reply," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10, pages 368-371, August.
    12. Müller, Harry & Dilger, Alexander, 2013. "Der Einfluss des Forschungsschwerpunkts auf den Zitationserfolg: Eine empirische Untersuchung anhand der Gesamtpublikationen deutschsprachiger Hochschullehrer für BWL," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 1/2013, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    13. Albers, Sönke & Bielecki, Andre, 2012. "Wovon hängt die Leistung in Forschung und Lehre ab? Eine Analyse deutscher betriebswirtschaftlicher Fachbereiche basierend auf den Daten des Centrums für Hochschulentwicklung," EconStor Preprints 57428, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    14. Tüselmann, Heinz & Sinkovics, Rudolf R. & Pishchulov, Grigory, 2015. "Towards a consolidation of worldwide journal rankings – A classification using random forests and aggregate rating via data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 11-23.
    15. Klaus Ritzberger, 2009. "Misleading Rankings of Research in Business: A Reply -super-," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10, pages 364-367, August.

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