13 research outputs found
Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?
A review of Garfield's journal impact factor and its specific implementation
as the Thomson Reuters Impact Factor reveals several weaknesses in this
commonly-used indicator of journal standing. Key limitations include the
mismatch between citing and cited documents, the deceptive display of three
decimals that belies the real precision, and the absence of confidence
intervals. These are minor issues that are easily amended and should be
corrected, but more substantive improvements are needed. There are indications
that the scientific community seeks and needs better certification of journal
procedures to improve the quality of published science. Comprehensive
certification of editorial and review procedures could help ensure adequate
procedures to detect duplicate and fraudulent submissions.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 6 table
Is Inequality Among Universities Increasing? Gini Coefficients and the Elusive Rise of Elite Universities
One of the unintended consequences of the New Public Management (NPM) in
universities is often feared to be a division between elite institutions
focused on research and large institutions with teaching missions. However,
institutional isomorphisms provide counter-incentives. For example, university
rankings focus on certain output parameters such as publications, but not on
others (e.g., patents). In this study, we apply Gini coefficients to university
rankings in order to assess whether universities are becoming more unequal, at
the level of both the world and individual nations. Our results do not support
the thesis that universities are becoming more unequal. If anything, we
predominantly find homogenization, both at the level of the global comparisons
and nationally. In a more restricted dataset (using only publications in the
natural and life sciences), we find increasing inequality for those countries,
which used NPM during the 1990s, but not during the 2000s. Our findings suggest
that increased output steering from the policy side leads to a global
conformation to performance standards
Predicting performance in planning school: an assessment of credentials with consideration of gender, race, and national origin
Developing the best professional talent is critical to the success of planning. Graduate school admissions procedures often rely heavily on prior grade point averages and standardized test scores to determine who is allowed to study toward planning degrees. The efficacy of these credentials in predicting graduate school performance is examined. Findings suggest that over-reliance on quantitative credentials may not be effectively identifying those who are most likely to graduate.