Who should rank our journals … and based on what?

Abstract

Purpose -This study aims to establish the use of active scholar assessment (ASA) in the field of education leadership as a new methodology in ranking administration and leadership journals. The secondary purpose of this study is to respond to the paucity of research on journal ranking in educational administration and leadership. Design/methodology/approach -This empirical study uses on-line survey research methods with analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical analysis. Findings -The main findings of this study are: ASA minimizes noted limitations in peer assessment studies; publishing rates and years of service do not significantly influence quality assessment bias; ASA provides a comprehensive and fair assessment of journals; and ASA responds to established criteria as a new, independent system for journal ranking. This study also provides current rankings of educational administration and leadership journals. Research limitations/implications -This study points to the importance of continued research using ASA in journal assessment in education and other social sciences. Originality/value -This study provides a new methodology in assessing journal quality, awareness, and importance to the field for journals in educational administration and leadership.

Exploring features of highly productive research contexts in Asia: a comparison of knowledge production in educational leadership in Israel and Hong Kong

“…The rationale for selection of this particular subset of eight journals for the review was, therefore, predicated on several criteria. First, these journals had been identified explicitly as "key journals" or "core journals" in several earlier studies of the educational leadership and management literature (Cherkowski, Currie, & Hilton, 2012;DuBois & Reeb, 2000;Hallinger & Bryant, 2013b;Harvey & Morris, 2008;Mayo, Zirkel, & Finger, 2006;Richardson & McLeod, 2009). Moreover, the journals overlap with the scope of publications incorporated into other scholarly reviews of the educational leadership and management literature conducted since 1995 (Hallinger & Bryant, 2013b;Hallinger & Heck, 1996;Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005;Robinson et al, 2008).…”

Mapping the field of educational administration research: a journal citation network analysis

“…In addition to EAQ, the journal that has been repeatedly analyzed in the previous studies, Richardson and McLeod added Journal of School Leadership (JSL) to their study because they argued that JSL was another top journal in educational administration. However, as Cherkowski, Currie, and Hilton (2011) critiqued, Richardson and McLeod did not provide the empirical evidence to support their decision on including JSL in their study. By counting how many times EAQ and JSL cited other journals, Richardson and McLeod recommended educational administration authors to publish in those most cited journals in order to get noticed by the top journals in educational administration.…”

“…We examined each of 48 journals in Cherkowski et al's (2011) study, finding that while the majority of the journals are still in print, unfortunately a few have ceased publication; for seven journals we lacked access through three different university libraries; some allowed only restricted access to certain issues which kept us from including the journals in the present study. We therefore excluded those journals, as noted in Appendix.…”

“…First, the journal citation network in the current study was bounded by the scope of 30 citing journals. While we selected these 30 journals as the citing journals based on the journals examined in the previous literature (Campbell, 1979;Cherkowski et al, 2011;Hass et al, 2007;Murphy et al, 2007;Richardson and McLeod, 2009), we recognize that these 30 citing journals were not an exhaustive summary of all educational administration journals. Future studies could rely on our results, and compile a more comprehensive list of educational administration journals, determined not by a pre-conceived list, but strictly by all journals pertinent to educational administration as evidenced by the citation network data.…”

“…In contrast to using citations as a proxy to examine journals, Cherkowski et al (2011) administered a survey as a mode of inquiry in educational administration journals. Cherkowski et al used a survey instrument-Active Scholar Assessment-to collect publishing authors' ratings on journal quality and the level of journal awareness on a five-point Likert scale.…”