{"id":2205,"date":"2013-01-22T20:50:14","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T03:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/idrnblog\/?p=2205"},"modified":"2013-01-31T11:22:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T18:22:10","slug":"where-to-publish-top-development-journals-a-guide-for-the-perplexed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/idrnblog\/2013\/01\/22\/where-to-publish-top-development-journals-a-guide-for-the-perplexed\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to publish? | Top Development Journals:
A Guide for the Perplexed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of us are still in the throes of graduate research. As such we’re less experienced (and often less confident) in our work than are seasoned academics, and we struggle with how best to package and disseminate our findings for maximum effect. Choosing the right journal to submit to is central to this process. Not only does the choice of journal label us as emerging experts (or not) in one field versus another, it also has a direct impact on how we go about analyzing, and ultimately articulating, our data.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we’ve begun trawling the internet for methodical rankings of journals that focus on global development issues. Below is a roundup of what we’ve found thus far:<\/p>\n

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From the ICT4D<\/a> blog, a ranking of development-focused journals based (roughly) on the average number of Google Scholar citations per paper, per year, in each journal. This ranking excludes development economics journals. \u00a0 (Compiled in June 2010)<\/p><\/div>\n

This table (above) is from\u00a0IC4D<\/a>, a blog that\u00a0focuses on the role of information and communications technology in development. Their list uses Google Scholar to create an algorithm that approximates the average # of citations per paper\/year for each relevant journal. (This differs slightly from a classic impact factor approach, which instead ranks journals based on a ratio of \u00a0# of citations : # of recent articles published). For some reason the folks at IC4D decided to explicitly leave out development economics journals from their ranking.<\/p>\n

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From Masters’ student Sarah Cummings research blog<\/a>, comparing a subset of Heeks<\/a>‘ ranking (published by IC4D, above) with several other indices, including those of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes<\/a>. See here<\/a> for more detail on Cummings’ methods. (Compiled in April 2012)<\/p><\/div>\n

Apparently as part of her Masters’ research, graduate student Sarah Cummings put together the ranking, above, based on a subset of the journals identified by Richard Heeks<\/a>\u00a0in his ranking (via IC4D). In addition to Heeks’ data, Cummings includes the ISI citation score for each journal, and the letter ranking given by the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes<\/a>\u00a0and the Netherlands’ Research School for Resource Studies for Development<\/a> (CERES). Writing in 2012, Cummings appears to exclude some journals on the basis of their being primarily international, hyper-regional or comparative. Not sure why.<\/p>\n

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Development journals ranked by impact factor, as compiled<\/a> by Tulane University. (2011)<\/p><\/div>\n

Next, Tulane University’s library hosts a page<\/a> dedicated to ‘research tools for international development<\/a>.’ The list to the left is one they provide, which ranks prominent development journals by run-of-the-mill 2011 impact factor. Although they don’t mention it explicitly, Tulane’s list also appears to exclude development economics journals. Nonetheless, a concise and helpful list.<\/p>\n

Below, is a top-20 list of journals tagged with the term ‘development,’ and ranked by the (relatively new) SCImago Journal Rank (SJR<\/a>) system. SJR uses network theory<\/a> to add a ‘centrality’ weighting to its calculus, supposedly giving a more accurate representation of a journal’s prestige than does your standard impact-factor rating. It seems to us, however, that in this case, SJR’s ranking is skewed by its somewhat liberal application of the tag ‘development’ in its database of journals.<\/p>\n

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SJR<\/a> rankings<\/a> of journals categorized under ‘Development.’ Top 20, based on 2011 figures.<\/p><\/div>\n

And here (below) is the same set of journals (using SJR’s categorization scheme) ranked instead by H-index<\/a>, which puts greater emphasis on highly-cited articles than do other indices.<\/p>\n

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SJR<\/a>‘s top 20 ‘development’ journals list, ranked by h-index<\/a>, emphasizing highly-cited papers. (Based on 2011 data)<\/p><\/div>\n

To mix things up a bit, below is the ISI Web of Knowledge’s list of ‘Planning and Development’ journals, ranked by standard impact factor. ISI Web of Knowledge doesn’t have an explicit ‘development’ or ‘international development’ category, as distinct from planning, so their list adds a different bias relative to the others, above.<\/p>\n

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‘Planning and Development’ journals, as categorized by the ISI Web of Knowledge, ranked<\/a> by standard impact factor. The lack of distinction between ‘planning’ and ‘development’ creates a unique bias. (Top 20, based on 2011 data)<\/p><\/div>\n

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‘Planning and Development’ journals (a combined category), ranked<\/a> by ISI Web of Knowledge’s ‘Article Influence<\/a>‘ score, emphasizing 5-year impact of new publications. (Top 10, based on 2011 data)<\/p><\/div>\n

And for a bit of perspective, here’s the same database ranked by ISI’s ‘Article Influence’ score, which emphasizes the average impact of journals’ articles within the first 5 years after their publication. Journals ranked 1-6 in this list have ‘above average’ impact. 7-10 have average or less-than-average impact.<\/p>\n

How about specific disciplines? With respect to development economics<\/strong>, the online consensus appears to especially favour:<\/p>\n