Dear Ralph, my experience at multiple universities (Ph.D. granting and
non-Ph.D. granting) leads me to believe the following:
1) The classification of Tier 1 etc, beyond the obvious (e.g., ASQ, AMJ,
AMR, SMJ, JAP) is pretty idiosyncratic to each university, and often very
political. Bill Starbuck, @ NYU, publishes on his website a list of 276
journals in the social sciences and business and the average citation count
(adjusted for discipline norms) of articles published in each journal.
2) Some of the most highly cited manuscripts are either books (e.g.,
Porter), published as chapters in scholarly books/anthologies (e.g.,
Research on Org Behavior), or in journals that, at least at the time of
publishing would not be considered Tier 1 at many top Ph.D. programs (e.g.,
Jay Barney's 1991 JOM article-his most cited piece). This raises the
question about whether or not one should look at citation counts, rather
than journals, or at least read the article and make your own independent
judgment about the quality of the contribution. A judgement about the
quality of an article at the time of its publication tends to be journal
dependent, but over time, impact (e.g., citation count) matters more.
3) There is a Matthew Effect on the evaluation of articles such that if a
person has published in clearly acknowledged Tier 1 journals than other
articles published in other journals are rated higher than if the person
had not published in clearly defined Tier 1 journals.
4) Mix matters. To be considered a high quality vita, then about 1/3 of
total pubs should be in Tier 1 journals. This assumes the vita has a
substantial number of publications. However, if the vita is relatively
short, the percentage of publications in Tier 1 journals must be larger,
e.g., greater than 50%.
5) Elite Tier 1 schools expect much more than merely publishing in Tier 1
journals, e.g., a program of research that is clearly defined, widely
recognized, and that has had an impact and for which you are seen as one of
the gatekeepers. I sometimes think you need at least 1 article with 100+
cites.
6) I tell my doctoral students to never ask how many publications they need
for tenure or where they need to publish. Such information may report the
mean, but ignores the variance. Rather I tell them to concentrate on doing
good work. (Good work has a better chance of getting published in Tier 1
journals, but nothing is guaranteed). If they do good work, then there is
a home for them in this profession and someone will want them and they can
have a fine career and make a difference.
Best, Kim Boal
At 05:53 PM 10/9/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Can some of the colleagues out there provide a citation or two in which
>management journals are classifies as to Tier 1, Tier 2, etc (A
>journals, B journals, etc.)? Any help will be appreciated.
>
>A direct reply will reach me at
>
rparrish@ucok.edu
>
>Thanks
>
>Ralph W. Parrish, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>Management
>College of Business
>University of Central Oklahoma
>
--------------------------------
Kim Boal
College of Business Administration
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409
(806) 742-2150
KimBoal@ttu.edu