An insider‟s guide to getting published in research journals

Simon Linacre

Saïd Business School

Oxford University

Wednesday 23rd March 2011

AIMS OF THE SESSION

To fully explain the publishing process and provide „top tips‟ and insider

knowledge to maximise your chances of publication, as well as…

• Discuss ISI and journal rankings in a UK context

• To learn more about your needs

• Q&A session: ask anything!

INTRODUCTION TO EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING

• World’s leading scholarly publisher in Business and Management

• Most of the world‟s top Business Schools and management studies departments subscribe to Emerald

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

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

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

• Also publishing books and journals in Social Sciences, Engineering and Library & Information Science

Personal Background

Name: Simon LinacrePosition: Senior Publisher and ISI CoordinatorEmerald: Manage Accounting journals; Team Leader;

managed Economics, Finance and Management titles for 8 years

Expertise: Acquisitions; publishing development; journal rankings; Author Workshops

INTRODUCTION TO EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING

INTRODUCTION TO EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING

Academic background

Degree: Philosophy at St Andrews (MA)

Practice: Newspaper Journalism (Diploma)

Postgrad: International Business (MA)

Publications: Strategic Direction (2004~)

Corporate Governance (2004)

Australian Accounting Review (2010)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (2011)

Oxford University and Emerald

Emerald works closely with Oxford :

• Authors include Professors Anthony Heath, Lalit Johri, Pamela Sammons, Raymond Ogden and Susan Bright

• One Editor and 21 Editorial Board members

• Seventy Authors in top journals such as IJOPM and EMJ in last 3 years

• Over 3,500 journal article downloads since 2008

• Most popular areas include Marketing, IPS, HRM, Ops & Logistics Mgt, and IKM

Research

EDITORIAL SUPPLY CHAIN

Author Editor

Publisher/

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

EDITORIAL TIMETABLE

• The Editor(s) do an initial read to determine if the subject matter and research approach of the manuscript is appropriate for the journal (approximately 1 week)

• The Editor(s) identify and contact two reviewers for the manuscript (approximately 1 week)

• Reviewers are usually given 6-8 weeks to complete their reviews

• The Editor(s) assess the reviewers' comments and recommendations and make a decision on the manuscript (approximately 2 weeks)

• Expected time from submission to review feedback: 3 - 4 months

TOP TIP ♯1

Be ‘savvy’…

ie. wise, sage, knowing

Don‟t give an Editor a good

reason to put your article

in the wrong pile!

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

Every journal

published will

have detailed

notes and

guidelines

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?

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

• Sound, logical progression of argument

• Theoretical and practical implications (the „so what?‟ factors!)

• Recency and relevance of references

• Adherence to the editorial scope and objectives of the journal

TOP TIP ♯2

What Editors and Reviewers

DO NOT want…

… possibly the worst first page ever written!

How many mistakes can

you identify HERE?

SOME ANSWERS…

1. The title is too long

2. The title is uninteresting and would not catch the eye of a researcher

3. The authors should not be named on the first page of the article – they should be on a separate title page

4. This paper does not have a Structured Abstract, despite the instructions in the journal

5. No author is named as corresponding author

6. All authors’ addresses should be included with the paper

7. The keywords are OK, however they should include a more general word such as ‘productivity growth’

8. The article does not list the article’s JEL Index numbers which all submissions to economics journals should contain

9. There are two spelling mistakes and one grammatical error in just abstract

10.There is a footnote on the first page – all articles for Emerald require endnotes.

TOP TIP #3

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

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

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

• Use publishers‟ resources – eg

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/promote/index.htm

QUESTION #1

What rankings, lists and other resources do you use for your research at Saïd ?

RANKINGS

• ISI, Scopus, Google Scholar and usage metrics

• To provide advice and guidance on using metrics

• Discuss ABS, REF and journal rankings in a UK context

• To learn more about your needs

• Q&A session and follow up Question #1!

Background

Thomson Reuters, formerly known as Thomson Scientific, (and formerly known as Thomson ISI!), has provided access to academic research information for over 50 years following the work of its founder Dr Eugene Garfield

ISI is by far the most respected ranking for academic journals in the world, and is used for key decisions such as whether an author will publish with a journal, and whether a library will subscribe to it.

More information at http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

What is ISI?

What is commonly referred to by academics as „ISI‟, „SSCI‟ or „Impact Factors‟ is actually just a small part of Thomson Reuters, and more specifically, its „Journal Citation Reports‟ (JCR). These reports index and rank the journals it has on its „Web of Science‟ product, and is the collection of bibliographic information of over 12,000 evaluated scholarly journals.

A list of all journals can be found on the „Master Journal List‟, however the JCR will NOT include all journals on the list, as there is a two or three year wait once a journal has been accepted until it has retrievable data.

Currently, Emerald has 51 journals „on ISI‟, ie they can be accessed through the Web of Science and are included in the Journal Citation Reports (if data is available)

Access: www.isiknowledge.com

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

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.’

What is an Impact Factor (IF)?

Journals are ranked in the JCR depending on how many times the articles included in that journal are cited in other ISI-ranked journals. The ranking is published every June and corresponds to the previous year‟s data.

ISI uses a calculation of citation data over a three year period to produce an Impact Factor for a given year.

For example, the Impact Factor for Supply Chain Management (our highest ranked journal) is 2.341 and relates to 2009

The average Impact Factor for Emerald journals in 2009 has increased to just over 0.700

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

How are Impact Factor calculations made?

ISI uses the following equation to work out the impact factor of a particular journal:

A = 2009 cites to articles published in 2007-2008 B = number of articles published in 2007-2008

A/B = 2009 impact factor for the journal

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

Confused? Here’s an example!

Using the Journal of Saïd Business School as an example, there were 20 citations in 2009 in other ISI journals from its 2007-2008 issues (A). In this two-year period there were 60 articles published (B), which meant

that the impact factor for Journal of Saïd Business Schoolin 2009 was 20/60 = 0.333

A = 2009 cites (20)B = articles published (60)

A/B = 2009 impact factor (0.333)

THOMSON REUTERS (ISI)

QUESTION #2

Do you think there are any problems in how the Impact Factor is calculated?

TOP TIP #4: TAKE A STEP BACK

ISI is the most well known ranking, BUT…

• It is heavily biased towards North America

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

• Usage is a better measure of utility

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

• Be political (e.g. national vs international) and strategic(e.g. five articles in „low ranked‟ journals vs one in „top ranked‟ journal)

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)

Thomson Reuters, ISI and Impact Factors

QUESTION #3

How much is your research influenced by the REF? What about the ABS?

How will your research plans respond?

„Producing Spaces for Academic Discourse: The Impact of Research Assessment Exercises

and Journal Quality Rankings‟, Northcott, D. & Linacre, S.,

Australian Accounting Review No. 52 Vol. 20 Issue 1 2010

ABS Ranking

Very influential, very quickly

• Started in 2003 paper from UWE

• Originally compared UK rankings with 2001 RAE

• Latest version will remain until 2012

• „3‟ journals NOT on ISI to be demoted

• „2‟ journals on ISI to be PROMOTED

• Bodies such as BAFA are NOT happy…

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

The world is changing…

• ABS List: Updated every 2 years; major influence in UK

• REF: Submissions for 2013; 20% on „impact‟; no decision on metrics

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

• Sweden: Also using ISI in assessment

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

• ISI: Five Year Impact Factor; Series/books index in 2011

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

ABS, REF AND INTERNATIONALMARKETS

You may think a lot about the ABS and REF…

… but how are they viewed internationally?

• US: minimal impact

– Tenure

• Australia: some relevance

– ERA

• Europe: some interest

– CNRS; VhB; ISI

• Asia: significant developments

– ISI; ISI; ISI

TOP TIP #5: Widen your search

While ABS, ISI and the REF may have most attention in the UK, there are many other

rankings that provide useful – and potentially more relevant –

information…

TOP TIP #5

Use a range of bibliometrics:

• ISI… including „Eigenfactor‟ and „Five year IF‟

• Scopus… always expanding

• GoogleScholar… including „Publish or Perish‟

• H-Index

• Downloads

• National Research Assessment Exercises

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

RESEARCH YOUR RESEARCH

How well do you know the impact of articles published in your field?

• Journal of Information Science

• Online Information Review

• Scientometrics

• + general subject or education journals

Utilise your research skills around your subject!

Scopus

Scopus impact

• Created in 2004 by Elsevier

• Now includes over 18,000 titles

• Winning government contracts against ISI

• Update now available on 2010 SNIP and SJR

• Good site navigation; institution-level data

GoogleScholar

‘Free and easy’

• Covers EVERYTHING

• Free and easy to use

• Issues with data integrity

• Still in „beta‟ phase

• Easy to get lists of citations, but not to sort

• One of the most cited authors is „First Name‟….

„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 work by University of Melbourne academic Professor Anne-Wil Harzing, 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

• Same problems as GoogleScholar… but creates 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

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: REVISITED

Confusion reigns…

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

– On Web of Science: 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)

IMPACT and INSTRUMENTALISM

What sort of impact do you want your research to have?

Are rankings becoming too instrumental?

Utilise market intelligence!

Things may change…

IMPACT OF RESEARCH

Emerald 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

Thank you.

Any questions?

slinacre@emeraldinsight.com

IMPACT OF RESEARCH

“making a demonstrable difference in a non-academic context” Jonathan

Wolff, Professor of Philosophy, University College London, 2010

“[understanding] the nature and purposes of business school research and

[demonstrating] its overall value and visibility” AACSB Impact of

Research Report, 2008

“the beneficial application of research to achieve social, economic, environmental and/or cultural outcomes. This is not to be confused with impact in the academic domain, which is seen more as an indicator of

the intrinsic quality of the research on scholarly or academic measures”Australian Research Quality Framework, 2006

Accounting Bonus slides…

The Accounting Journal Landscape…

• Nine journals on FT45

• 13 journals on ISI

• 48 Journals on Scopus

• 100+ peer reviewed journals

• 1000+ book titles

• 10,000+ reviews, reports and websites

Which route do you choose?

Accounting & Finance

Emerald‟s Accounting & Finance portfolio:

• 14 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

POLITICAL DECISIONS:ABS vs ISI vs Scopus

Source title Rank (ISI 2008)Rank (SNIP 2009) Rank (G-Index)* ABS (2010)

Journal of Accounting and Economics 1 1 1 4

Accounting, Organizations and Society 4 2 4 4

Accounting Review 3 3 3 4

Journal of Accounting Research 2 4 2 4

Contemporary Accounting Research 6 5 5 3

Review of Accounting Studies 5 6 4

Auditing 7 12 2

Management Accounting Research tbc 8 8 3

Journal of Accounting and Public Policy tbc 9 14 n/a

Accounting Horizons 10 7 3

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 11 10 3

Journal of Business Finance and Accounting 7 12 9 n/a

International Journal of Accounting 13 21 3

British Accounting Review 14 18 3

Abacus 8 15 20 3

European Accounting Review 9 16 18 3

* Rosenstreich and Woollscroft (BAR 2009)

New Journals

Why are there so many new journals?

Emerald Accounting

& Finance Titles

Research Demand

Changing landscape

• Massive increase in management education

• Proliferation of journals online

• „Big Deal‟ database offer to libraries

• Appetite for interdisciplinary research

• Development of business education as marketplace

• Globalisation of management education

• Instrumentalism: pressure on research output