How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management

Ismael Rafols, Loet Leydesdorff, O’Hare, Alice, Paul Nightingale and Andy Stirling

Research Policy, 2012, vol. 41, issue 7, 1262-1282

Abstract: This study provides quantitative evidence on how the use of journal rankings can disadvantage interdisciplinary research in research evaluations. Using publication and citation data, it compares the degree of interdisciplinarity and the research performance of a number of Innovation Studies units with that of leading Business & Management Schools (BMS) in the UK. On the basis of various mappings and metrics, this study shows that: (i) Innovation Studies units are consistently more interdisciplinary in their research than Business & Management Schools; (ii) the top journals in the Association of Business Schools’ rankings span a less diverse set of disciplines than lower-ranked journals; (iii) this results in a more favourable assessment of the performance of Business & Management Schools, which are more disciplinary-focused. This citation-based analysis challenges the journal ranking-based assessment. In short, the investigation illustrates how ostensibly ‘excellence-based’ journal rankings exhibit a systematic bias in favour of mono-disciplinary research. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications of these phenomena, in particular how the bias is likely to affect negatively the evaluation and associated financial resourcing of interdisciplinary research organisations, and may result in researchers becoming more compliant with disciplinary authority over time.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary; Evaluation; Ranking; Innovation; Bibliometrics; Research assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (141)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733312000765
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: How Journal Rankings can suppress Interdisciplinary Research – A Comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:41:y:2012:i:7:p:1262-1282

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2012.03.015

Access Statistics for this article

Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray

More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().