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Abstract

Journal rankings are important for evaluating research output, for academic promotions, and for allocating funds. Examining the assignment of economics journals to different quartiles of citation-based rankings, the authors found that about 60% of journals remain in the same quartile and about 95% of journals remain in the same or move in a neighborhood quartile within 5- to 10-year intervals. Top journal rankings exhibit even more inertia, which is a desirable property for decisions on promotion, tenure, or institutional evaluation. A reexamination of journal assignment to different quality categories every 5 or 10 years, therefore, suffices for practical evaluation purposes.

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Tools for Evaluating Research Output

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