Ranking economics journals, economics departments, and economists using teaching-focused research productivity.

• Author: Lo, Melody
• Position: Targeting Teaching - Author abstract

1. Introduction

   Previous studies have accurately asserted that rankings of economists' research output and economics departments can be just as important to academic economists as the ESPN football poll is to college football coaches (Gibbons and Fish 1991; Mixon and Upadhyaya 2001). As a result of this importance, economists have produced a substantial amount of research on individual, department, and journal rankings over the past 30 years. Much of this literature stream has examined the productivity of traditional forms of economics research in order to rank economists and institutions.

   This study constructs new rankings of economics journals, economics departments, and economists that are based on (i) a tabulation of citations to economic education articles published in the economics literature since 1991 and (ii) a tabulation of the number of economic education articles (and pages) published since 1991. (1) Given this methodology, our ranking emphasizes teaching-focused research. Thus, our construct offers an interesting alternative to economics journal, department, and faculty rankings that is based on the productivity of traditional types of economics research.

2. Journal Ranking Methodology and Results

   To construct our teaching-focused research ranking of economics journals, departments, and faculty we examined published articles that list one or more of the economic education classification codes from the Journal of Economic Literature (hereafter, JEL): A200-A290. The JEL redefined its classification codes for indexing economics research in 1991, so our ranking construct includes all JEL-classified journal articles in economic education from 1991 through April 2005. Overall, there are 1535 articles within our time frame.

   Table 1 lists the top 20 economics journals with regard to the quantity of production of economic education research. Of course, some journals specialize in this area of economics research (e.g., Journal of Economic Education; JEE), while others publish only an occasional piece in the genre (e.g., Economic Inquiry; EI). Thus, the ranking in Table 1 reflects this element. At the top of the list, with 429 articles (since 1991), is the JEE. The American Economic Review (AER) is ranked fifth (54 articles), while the Journal of Economic Perspectives (JEP) is 13th (24 articles). A few well-known regional associations' general journals are also in the top 20. Among these are the Southern Economic Journal (SEJ) in seventh place (34 articles) and EI in 16th place (16 articles).

   To account for the relative importance of economics journals in the field of economic education, we first tabulate the number of economic education articles that are contained in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) for each journal. A total of 831 of the 1535 articles published since 1991 that list the JEL codes for economic education are contained in the SSCI. Next, we identified the importance of journals in the field of economic education by examining total citations as well as total citations per article received by a journal's economic education articles published since 1991. The top 20 journals (plus ties) using each of these methods are presented in Table 2. Not surprisingly, the JEE also tops the list, with 963 total citations. The JEL comes in second (262 total citations), while the AER is ranked third (230 total citations). Rounding out the top five using the total citations methodology are the JEP and EI.

   When total citations per economic education article are used, the JEL tops the list with 32.75 citations per article. EI, the AER, and the JEP are 12th, 13th, and 14th on the list, respectively, using this method. The JEL sometimes publishes lengthy articles on the status of economic education and the training of economists. The AER, which appears as number 13 in the ranking, is similar in this regard. The AER usually devotes a section of its May issue each year to research in economic education. Among the others mentioned above are EI, which has included a "Teaching Tools" section in past issues, and the JEP, which has historically included a "Classroom Games" feature in various issues. As made apparent by the rankings in Table 2, the JEL, AER, and EI have published teaching-focused articles quite productively. Interestingly, the JEE falls to 18th (2.24 citations per article), just behind the Review of Economics and Statistics (REStat), using the citations-per-article method depicted in Table 2. This lower relative position in the overall hierarchy is most likely due to the large volume of work produced since 1991 by the JEE. (2) Perhaps the productivity of the JEE is better depicted by the fact that the JEE has published 10 of the 25 most productive teaching-focused articles (based on total citations) since 1991. This is twice as many (or more) as any of the other journals appearing in Table 2. Lastly, new entrants into the top 10 using this approach (see Table 2) are represented by the interesting trio of the Economic Journal (EJ), the Journal of Economic History, and the Journal of Labor Research, to name just a few.

   Researchers sometimes criticize number of citation counts (as those reported in Table 2), concerned that this number may not be a robust proxy of what is really of interest because this number does not differentiate the quality of citations from different journals. To account for this criticism, Liebowitz and Palmer (1984) introduced an "impact-adjusted" citation method, in which they adjust citation counts, using an iterative procedure, by a measure of the influence of the citing journals. The impact-adjusted citation method has been a popular method in the economics ranking literature since Liebowitz and Palmer (1984). For example, Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos (2003) used the impact-adjusted citation method to construct a journal ranking that includes a large list of economics journals (covering all different research fields). Following the formula (detailed in the note for Table 3) for the impact-adjusted citation method outlined in Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos (2003, p. 1352), we produce a ranking of economics journals based on teaching-focused research productivity that accounts for impact and self-citations adjusted citations per page. This ranking is presented in column 1 of Table 3. For reference purposes, the index from the ranking (including all economics journals) constructed in Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos (2003) is provided in column 4 of Table 3.

   Using this approach, the JEL is the highest ranked journal, and it is followed in succession by the REStat, the AER, EI, and the EJ. It is interesting that the Economics of Education Review (EER) is ranked sixth using this method, while the JEE is 10 places below, at 15th. This result supports rankings in Kodrzycki and Yu (2006) indicating that the EER consistently outranks the JEE. (3) Finally, it is also noteworthy that Applied Economics (ninth) is highly ranked using this procedure, as is the SEJ (13th). As with EI, the SEJ has dedicated a section to...