Accounting Research and the World of Publishing: The Challenge for Malaysia

Simon LinacreSenior Publisher Emerald Group Publishing Limited

IABCJohor Bahru, Wed 16 February 2011

SUMMARY

• To investigate the world of publishing in a Malaysian context

• To provide insight on ‘bibliometrics’

• Discuss journal rankings for Accounting research in a global environment

• Assess challenges and opportunities for Malaysian scholarship

• Thoughts on future of research and effects

Personal Background

Name: Simon LinacrePosition: Senior Publisher and ISI CoordinatorEmerald: Managed Accounting, Economics,

Finance and Management titles for eight years

Expertise: Acquisitions; publishing development; journals’ rankings; Author Workshops

Interests: Open Access publishing; social media; new technology

INTRODUCTION TO EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING

INTRODUCTION TO EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING

Academic background

Degree: Philosophy at St Andrews (MA)

Practice: Newspaper Journalism (Diploma)

Postgraduate: International Business (MA)

Publications: Strategic Direction (2004~)

Corporate Governance (2004a,b)

Australian Accounting Review (2010)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (2011)

INTRODUCTION TO EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING

• World’s leading scholarly publisher in Business and Management

• Truly international publisher, with authors, editors, advisers, reviewers and customers from around the world

• Headquarters in Bingley (UK), with representative offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Dubai, India, Japan, Poland, South Africa, the USA… and Malaysia (KL)

• Constantly investigating the acquisition and launch of new titles and exploring new partnerships

• Publishes titles such as Accounting, Auditing & Accountablility Journal and Asian Review of Accounting

Accounting & Finance

Emerald’s Accounting & Finance portfolio:

• 15 Accounting journals

• 10 Finance journals

• 14 Accounting & Finance books

• 1.2 million article downloads in 2010

Leading journal is Accounting, Auditing &

Accountability Journal: A* in Australian ERA,

Top Ten on Scopus and over 270,000

articles downloaded in 2010

Emerald and Malaysia

Close relationship over several decades:

• First overseas office in late 90s in KL

• Second largest user of Accounting content

• UiTM the biggest single institution for usage

• Special Issue on Auditing in Malaysia in 2006

• Acquired JFRA in 2009

• Launched JIABR in 2010• Launching JAEE in 2011

BUT FIRST…

How do you get published???

‘RESEARCHING YOUR RESEARCH’

Be ‘savvy’…

ie. wise, sage, knowing

Don’t give an Editor a good

reason to put your article

in the wrong pile!

Research

EDITORIAL SUPPLY CHAIN

Author

EditorPublishe

r/Managing Editor

Production

Users

Quality research papers

EAB and reviewers

Solicits new papers

Handles review process

Promotes journal to peers

Attends conferences

Develops new areas of coverage

The link between the publishing company and editor

Helps editors succeed in their role and build a first class journal

Overall responsibility for journal

Promotion and marketing

Attends conferences

Handles production issues

QA – sub-editing and proof reading

Convert to SGML for online databases

Print production

Despatch

Added value from publisher

Access via library

Hard copy

Database

Third party

WHAT EDITORS/REVIEWERS WANT…

• Originality – what’s new about subject, treatment or results?

• Relevance to and extension of existing knowledge

• Research methodology – are conclusions valid and objective? Is there a sound, logical progression of the argument

• Clarity, structure and quality of writing – does it communicate?

• Good level of English language

• Sound, logical progression of argument

• Theoretical and practical implications (the ‘so what?’ factors)

• Recency and relevance of references

• Adherence to the editorial scope of the journal

HOW TO GET NOTICED

Improve dissemination by…

• Using short descriptive title containing main keyword, relevant hot topic or Blue Chip – don’t mislead

• Writing a clear and descriptive abstract containing the main keywords and following any instructions as to content and length

• Providing relevant and known keywords – not obscure new jargon

• Making your references complete and correct – vital for reference linking and citation indices

• Ensuring your paper is word-perfect

• Make a marketing plan for your work – this can include posting your paper on arhives (eg SSRN, RePec, ArXiv), using the university press office, infiltrating research networks on listservs, conference and social media communities (eg LinkedIn)

FIVE CHALLENGES FOR MALAYSIAN RESEARCHERS

• JOURNAL RANKINGS

• POLITICS AND STRATEGY

• NEW MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

• NEW COMPETITORS

• RESEARCH IMPACT

Challenges AND opportunities for Malaysian Accounting research

#1 RANKINGS

Currently, global rankings dominated by two major players:

• ISI

• Scopus

But are there no alternatives?

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

‘The cited reference search system allows users to search for articles that cite a known author or work. Impact factors are given to all journals in the ISI Web of Knowledge and are based upon citation analysis. ISI, since its inception, has aimed to provide a systematic way to determine the relative importance of journals within its subject categories – hence the Impact Factor. Impact Factors and a wealth of other statistical data from journals are housed in the JCR.’

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

ISI is the most well known ranking, BUT…

• It is heavily biased towards North America

• Citations are a good, but not necessary, guide to quality

• Usage is a better measure of utility

• Dissemination of the journals

• Other factors to consider are recent articles, most communicative, societies, institutions and internationality

Two key challenges in Malaysia:

Being political (e.g. national vs international)

Being strategic (e.g. five articles in ‘low ranked’ journals vs one in ‘top ranked’ journal)

#2 Politics and Strategy

Politics and Strategy

How much is your research influenced by the rankings? How will the rankings

change in 2011? How will your research plans respond?

‘Producing Spaces for Academic Discourse: The Impact of Research Assessment Exercises and Journal Quality Rankings’, (2010) Northcott, D. & Linacre, S.,

Australian Accounting Review No. 52 Vol. 20 Issue 1

Political Challenges…(1)

“Who could be better placed than a community of accounting scholars to understand the consequences of measurement and reporting systems? Yet, the findings of this study suggest that we are ourselves – largely unwillingly – captured by a measurement and reporting system that shapes our perceptions of journals, our decisions about where to disseminate our work, and even our research agenda.”

Political Challenges… (2)

“If emerging, innovative and diverse journals fail to garner support, they will prove academically unsustainable and commercially prohibitive. The consequence may be a withering of the spaces in which we conduct our academic discourses, a stifling of innovation and a further entrenchment of current perceptions of what counts as ‘quality’ research.”

Accounting Journals: A Strategic View for Malaysia

Thirty years ago there were only nine Accounting journals publishes by major publishers…

….In 2010 there were 47

Cabells lists over 90 Accounting Journals…

…With rejection rates published

Alternative publishing models are developing…

…Open Access, SSRN, online only journals

Malaysia is the biggest research user in region…

…Article usage is increasingly being assessed

‘Impact’ is becoming more relevant

#3 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

The world is changing…

• ABS List: Updated every two years, increasing influence in UK

• Spain: Moved to use ISI in assessment; BUT some unis using Scopus

• Sweden: Also using ISI in assessment

• Australia: New ERA in 2012 - ISI or Scopus? Role of Associations?

• MESUR: Global usage product ‘better’ than ISI assessing quality

• ISI: Series and books index in 2011

• ISI: Five Year Impact Factor and Eigenfactor

• Politics: Evidence of changing game from AACSB, efmd, REF, academic figures and as a result of GEC

Researching in Malaysia, how can you take advantage of this?

Mathematical (and political) calculations

“If I could get rid of the Impact Factor tomorrow, I would. I hate it… It totally distorts decision-

making and it is a very, very bad influence on science”

Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet

(Impact Factor: 28.409)

CHANGING FEELINGS

Using Bibliometrics

Source title Scopus SJR 2010

Scopus SNIP 2010

ISI Impact Factor 2008

Rank ISI 2008

Rank SJR 2010

Rank SNIP 2010

ABS 2010

Journal of Accounting and Economics •0.144 •0.790 •2.851 •1 •1 •1 •4

Journal of Accounting Research •0.121 •0.490 •2.350 •2 •2 •3 •4

The Accounting Review •0.117 •0.450 •1.920 •3 •3 •4 •4

Review of Accounting Studies •0.099 •0.270 •1.500 •5 •4 •7 •4

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal •0.093 •0.290 •n/a • •5 •6 •3

Accounting, Organizations and Society •0.090 •0.450 •1.803 •4 •6 •2 •4

New developments mean new resources

Ability to utilise a range of bibliometrics:

• Citations – ISI, Scopus, GoogleScholar

• Downloads

• National Research Assessment Exercises

• Academic research – Harzing, Jacso, Van Raan, Hirsch…

• Journals - Journal of Information Science, Online Information Review, Scientometrics + general subject or education journals

#4 NEW COMPETITORS

Scopus

• 50% journal coverage

• Better representation of Social Sciences and Humanities

• Based in Europe

Google Scholar

• Covers EVERYTHING

• Free and easy to use

• Issues with data integrity

‘PUBLISH OR PERISH’

• Publish or Perish, or ‘PoP’, is the tongue-in-cheek name of software developed using the algorithms from Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com)

• It is the result of collaboration by University of Melbourne academic Professor Anne-Wil Harzing and her software developer husband, and lies alongside her work on journal rankings and the compilation of the Harzing List (www.harzing.com)

• PoP is termed ‘front end software’ as it provides an interface for users to manipulate data from an existing website, in this case Google Scholar

‘PUBLISH OR PERISH’

Some problems…

• Veracity: As PoP is based on Google Scholar, it inherits its problems such as lack of accuracy, provenance and reputation

• Reliability: Sometimes results fail to appear or the site is down – be patient and try later!

• Anomalies: Sometimes you can get results that include other journals, different publishers or other seemingly random information. Be as specific as possible on searches by using tick boxes on the left, searching with and/&, and “quotation marks”

BUT…

• Highly usable, informative, and can develop new measures such as the ‘H-Index’

H-INDEX

The H-Index• The H-Index was formulated by a physicist called Hirsch to give ‘a

robust single-number metric of a journal's impact, combining quality with quantity.

• It can be represented thus:

There is anecdotal evidence

that it is being quoted by

academics in their CVs

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index

H-INDEX

• The H-index aims to provide a robust single-number metric of a journal's impact:

“An author with an index of 6 has published 6 papers each of which has been cited by others at least 6 times. Thus, the h-index reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication”

BUT… where are the citations from?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-index

H-INDEX: REVISITED

Confusion reigns…

• Search on International Marketing Review for its H-index had following results:

– On Web of Science (ISI): H = 12

– On Scopus: H = 19

– On Publish or Perish: H = 53

WARNING… where are the citations from?

USEFUL RESOURCES

• www.isiknowledge.com (ISI ranking lists and impact factors)

• www.harzing.com (Anne-Wil Harzing's site about academic publishing and the assessment of research and journal quality, as well as ‘Publish or Perish’ software to conduct citation analysis)

• www.scopus.com (abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources)

• www.cabells.com (addresses, phone, e-mail and websites for a large number of journals as well as information on publication guidelines and review information)

Your Challenge

How can you market yourself as a research academic?

What is your H-index?

Utilise market intelligence!

#5 IMPACT OF RESEARCH

Emerald firmly believes that our published research should demonstrate impact. Unlike other bodies debating this question, we take a holistic, more rounded approach and consider research having impact at many levels:

– Knowledge

– Teaching

– Practice

– Policy making

– Economy

– Society

IMPACT OF RESEARCH

• Emerald has always believed that our published research should have impact and that citation alone is an incomplete measure of value

• The AACSB’s 2008 ‘Impact of Research’ paper reinforced this view

• It concluded there was too much emphasis on citation and theoretical research at expense of other forms of contributions to practice and teaching

• View is gaining importance the world over

• UK - debate over future of the RAE or REF - or – use of taxpayers’ money in a recessionary environment

IMPACT OF RESEARCH

The game is changing daily…

1. ‘The order of things’, Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, Feb 14 & 21, 2011

“Who comes out on top, in any ranking system, is really about who is doing the ranking.”

2. ‘How to make research relevant for managers’, George Yip, Financial Times, Mon February 14, 2011

“Nearly all researchers think their research is relevant… But true relevance comes only if the results are usable by managers.”

In conclusion…

• Malaysia has produced excellent quality research in accounting

• Position yourself, arm yourself with market intelligence and promote your research

• Take a rounded view of your research and its potential impact; monitor changes

• Utilise global changes in research assessment to your and your institution’s advantage

• Assess the community of scholars you relate to; use their networks

Thank you.

Any questions?

slinacre@emeraldinsight.com