[Logprofs] Are journal rankings damaging logistics as an academic discipline?

[Herbert Kotzab]

Dear colleagues!
Being in the academic environment means that one becomes a decathlete. There are many "disciplines" to cope with including publishing, teaching, disseminating knowledge in various forms, supervision, administration, etc. the exclusive use of rankings and ratings to evaluate the quality of an academic is then like evaluating how fast to run the 100 m which is then used as the sole indicator. 
It is not the "fault" of the rankings or ratings it is the "fault" of people using them and giving them a meaning and unfortunately rankings and ratings are not used especially for young faculty in a responsible matter.
There is big discussion going on in Germany where one business journal has published its ranking on researchers based on their publication output and more than 300 academics have opted out for this ranking. the list of these colleagues is now labeled as "loserlist" as the journalists have remarked that most of them would not have even made it on their ranking list. It is sad to see such a coverage. Because researching is not only publishing in high-ranked journals. There are many ways to disseminate research outputs.
kind regards
herbert

________________________________________
Von: logprofs-bounces at mit.edu [logprofs-bounces at mit.edu] im Auftrag von Satish Mehra (smehra) [smehra at memphis.edu]
Gesendet: Dienstag, 23. Oktober 2012 21:25
An: Joe Cavinato; John Coyle; Chris Harris
Cc: Joe Cavinato; logprofs at mit.edu
Betreff: Re: [Logprofs] Are journal rankings damaging logistics as an academic  discipline?

Joe is right on target. Rankings simply forces many to go in directions that do not benefit any party in the question. Sad part is that rankings have become a “religious mantra” which has no God to bless except a meager system rewarding people but not the real cause (i.e., discovery of new knowledge benefitting the society we’ll serve).

Regards,

Satish Mehra
=======================
Satish Mehra, Ph.D., CPIM
Professor of Production Operations Management
Fogelman College of Business & Economics
The University of Memphis
Memphis, TN 38152
(901) 678-2476
Fax: (901) 678-2685
email: smehra at memphis.edu<mailto:smehra at memphis.edu>
http://umpeople.memphis.edu/smehra


From: logprofs-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:logprofs-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of Joe Cavinato
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 10:48 AM
To: John Coyle; Chris Harris
Cc: logprofs at mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Logprofs] Are journal rankings damaging logistics as an academic discipline?

Journal rankings tend to narrow the attributes, focus, and mind sets of most business fields.  They also limit out-of-the-box research that investigates what future directions can be.  This is not found in sciences or engineering, but it sure is nuclear-hardened in the attitudes of business school deans, b-journal editors and aspiring faculty who are on those review boards.

Logistics is still trying to find itself as an academic field.  And, it is in an era where business schools are trying to figure out that their own futures are.

There is a tremendous amount of new growth of the field's scope to be discovered, experimented with, etc.,  but b-school journals (and logistics ones) prevent research from seriously going in those directions.  If an article isn't loaded with quantitative core strength, it doesn't get accepted.  So, instead we're left with articles and journals that dwell on data-dense topics of things that happened in the past (where the data was found).

Best,

Joe
________________________________
From: logprofs-bounces at mit.edu<mailto:logprofs-bounces at mit.edu> [logprofs-bounces at mit.edu] on behalf of John Coyle [jjc1 at psu.edu]
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2012 2:15 PM
To: Chris Harris
Cc: logprofs at mit.edu<mailto:logprofs at mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [Logprofs] Are journal rankings damaging logistics as an academic discipline?
I agree.

jc

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 20, 2012, at 4:12 PM, "Chris Harris" <CHarris at emeraldinsight.com<mailto:CHarris at emeraldinsight.com>> wrote:
*********************Apologies for cross posting***********************

Here is the Early Cite link to Professor Alan C. McKinnon's manuscript entitled "Starry-Eyed: Journal Rankings and the Future of Logistics Research" that will be published in International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (Volume 43/1, 2013). McKinnon's thought-provoking manuscript challenges both the principle and practice of journal rankings arguing that preoccupation with journal ratings is having a damaging effect on the development of logistics as an academic discipline.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0960-0035&volume=43&issue=1

Best regards,

Chris Harris
Assistant Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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