IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/iuiwop/1519.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Not Just the Top Five Journals: A Recipe for European Economists

Author

Listed:
  • Henrekson, Magnus

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

  • Jonung, Lars

    (Department of Economics, Lund University)

  • Lundahl, Mats

    (Development Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

Abstract

We provide a critical analysis of the adoption of the US ‘top-five model’ by European economics academia. This model prioritizes publications in five elite journals, heavily influencing the career trajectories of doctoral students and researchers. It highlights the inefficiencies and social costs of this system, including the overemphasis on narrowly focused research topics and methodologies that align with US editorial preferences. This undermines innovation, interdisciplinary exploration, and economic research on issues of high social relevance in the home countries. The dominance of US institutions in setting these standards, disadvantages European scholars. We propose reforms for more diverse evaluation criteria that account for local relevance and broader scholarly contributions, suggesting that such changes would better align with European academic and societal needs. These adjustments aim to create a more balanced and impactful academic landscape while fostering a wider range of meaningful research outputs.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrekson, Magnus & Jonung, Lars & Lundahl, Mats, 2025. "Not Just the Top Five Journals: A Recipe for European Economists," Working Paper Series 1519, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1519
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifn.se/wfiles/wp/wp1519.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman & Sidharth Moktan, 2020. "Publishing and promotion in economics - The tyranny of the Top Five," Vox eBook Chapters, in: Sebastian Galliani & Ugo Panizza (ed.), Publishing and Measuring Success in Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 23-32, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Magnus Henrekson & Daniel Waldenström, 2011. "How Should Research Performance Be Measured? A Study Of Swedish Economists," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(6), pages 1139-1156, December.
    3. Joshua S. Gans & George B. Shepherd, 1994. "How Are the Mighty Fallen: Rejected Classic Articles by Leading Economists," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 165-179, Winter.
    4. Bruno Frey, 2009. "Economists in the PITS?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 56(4), pages 335-346, December.
    5. Simon Ek & Magnus Henrekson, 2019. "The Geography and Concentration of Authorship in the Top Five: Implications For European Economics," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(2), pages 215-245, May.
    6. Esther Duflo, 2017. "Richard T. Ely Lecture: The Economist as Plumber," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 1-26, May.
    7. Arthur E. Attema & Werner B.F. Brouwer & Job Van Exel, 2014. "Your Right Arm For A Publication In Aer?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 495-502, January.
    8. Marco Novarese & Andrea Pozzali, 2010. "Heterodox Economics and the Scientist's Role in Society," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(5), pages 1614-1635, November.
    9. Jishnu Das & Quy-Toan Do, 2020. "US and them - The geography of academic research," Vox eBook Chapters, in: Sebastian Galliani & Ugo Panizza (ed.), Publishing and Measuring Success in Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 111-114, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    10. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2019. "Shackling the Identification Police?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(4), pages 1016-1026, April.
    11. Esther Duflo, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," NBER Working Papers 23213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. George A. Akerlof, 2020. "Sins of Omission and the Practice of Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 405-418, June.
    13. François Brischoux & Frédéric Angelier, 2015. "Academia’s never-ending selection for productivity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(1), pages 333-336, April.
    14. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Riyanto, Yohanes E. & Knetsch, Jack L., 2018. "Lower-rated publications do lower academics’ judgments of publication lists: Evidence from a survey experiment of economists," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 33-44.
    15. Duflo, Esther, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," CEPR Discussion Papers 11881, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Claudius Gräbner & Birte Strunk, 2020. "Pluralism in economics: its critiques and their lessons," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 311-329, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Gibson, 2021. "The micro‐geography of academic research: How distinctive is economics?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(4), pages 467-484, September.
    2. Eva Forslund & Magnus Henrekson, 2022. "The Virtues of Native Discourse: Striking a Balance Between English and the Native Language," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 19(2), pages 258–282-2, September.
    3. Simon Ek & Magnus Henrekson, 2019. "The Geography and Concentration of Authorship in the Top Five: Implications For European Economics," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(2), pages 215-245, May.
    4. Masselus, Lise & Petrik, Christina & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2024. "Lost in the Design Space? Construct Validity in the Microfinance Literature," OSF Preprints nwp8k_v1, Center for Open Science.
    5. Dina Pomeranz & José Vila-Belda, 2019. "Taking State-Capacity Research to the Field: Insights from Collaborations with Tax Authorities," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 755-781, August.
    6. Syed Hasan & Robert Breunig, 2021. "Article length and citation outcomes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7583-7608, September.
    7. Krause, Philipp & Hernández Licona, Gonzalo, 2020. "From experimental findings to evidence-based policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven & Surbhi Kesar, 2021. "Standing in the Way of Rigor? Economics’ Meeting with the Decolonizing Agenda," Working Papers 2110, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    9. Masselus, Lise & Petrik, Christina & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2024. "Lost in the design space? Construct validity in the microfinance literature," Ruhr Economic Papers 1097, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    10. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2021. "Truth vs justification: contrasting heterodox and mainstream thinking on development via the example of austerity in Africa," CEPN Working Papers hal-03139457, HAL.
    11. Alem, Mauro & Jorge Elias, Julio, 2018. "Allocating production risks through credit cum insurance contracts: the design and implementation of a fund for small cotton growers to access market finance," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(2), March.
    12. B. James Deaton, 2019. "Agricultural economics: Key commitments and institutional alertness," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 67(1), pages 5-14, March.
    13. Peter Andre & Armin Falk, 2021. "What’s Worth Knowing? Economists’ Opinions about Economics," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 102, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    14. Hendrik P. Dalen, 2021. "How the publish-or-perish principle divides a science: the case of economists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1675-1694, February.
    15. Rehse, Dominik & Tremöhlen, Felix, 2020. "Fostering participation in digital public health interventions: The case of digital contact tracing," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Wei Yang Tham & Joseph Staudt & Elisabeth Ruth Perlman & Stephanie D. Cheng, 2024. "Scientific Talent Leaks Out of Funding Gaps," Working Papers 24-08, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    17. Peter Boettke & John Kroencke, 2020. "The real purpose of the program: a case study in James M. Buchanan’s efforts at academic entrepreneurship to “save the books” in economics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 227-245, June.
    18. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter, 2021. "How the publish-or-perish principle divides a science: The case of economists," Other publications TiSEM a6a5a855-bb5a-4d52-a841-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Button, Kenneth & Frye, Hailey & Reaves, David, 2020. "Economic regulation and E-scooter networks in the USA," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Karthik Muralidharan & Paul Niehaus & Sandip Sukhtankar & Jeffrey Weaver, 2021. "Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery Using Phone-Based Monitoring," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 52-82, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Criteria for hiring and promotion; European economics; Pluralism; Research productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1519. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Elisabeth Gustafsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iuiiise.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.