What are the characteristics of academic journals?
(Also known as scholarly or peer reviewed journals)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Authors: experts or noted professionals, most often
clearly affiliated with an academic or research
institution
Audience: articles targeted to experts or specialists.
Reference List: a list of references is included at the
end of each article
Content: research based - often communicate research
findings in a given field
Format/Structure: articles usually more structured,
may include: abstract, literature review, methodology,
results, conclusion.
Language: higher level language, focused, serious tone.
Length: longer articles, in-depth analysis of topics
Peer Review Policy: articles are reviewed for research
accuracy before publication by an Editorial Board who
are peer or experts in the field.
Special Features: tables of statistics, graphs, maps, or
photographs
“Publish or perish” refers to the pressure to publish articles
constantly to succeed in or sustain an academic career.
This impacts scholarly output in a number of ways!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Vr8Xl0cbUZA/SaEJ1atQ5VI/AAAAAAAAGNw/D- y6GKiAuA/s400/Image+%3D+Cartoon+Publish+Or+Perish+2.gif
http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/gif/cartoon/cart0395.jpg
Citation analysis tools
• If an academic shows good citation metrics , it is
likely that they have made a significant impact on
their field.
• Google Scholar - Lists citation counts and analysis
of authors outputs.
• Some business databases give citation counts– e.g.:
Business Source Premier, ABI/Inform and
Science Direct
• Science Direct & Emerald list top papers.
• Research databases for citation analysis – Scopus
& Web of Science
• Academic journal ranking lists can be found on the
Web & in Journal Citation Reports database
Citations counts – why they don’t
always work!
• Errors can be due to referencing formats, not all formats
require, like APA, that only material cited in the text can
be in the reference list.
• Environment – researcher could be working in a small field,
publishing in another language, publishing mainly in books.
• New research won’t have a lot of citations as it hasn’t had
time .
• Academic journals are of various tier levels, some more
prestigious than others.
• Caution alert - Google Scholar doesn’t explain what it
considers academic, what academic material is accessed &
not so good for older material.
• Many databases “cited by” feature is only for their
particular database
'Cited by' tools
• Who's Citing Me? (pdf) On the Business & Economics library page
http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/bus/general/resources.htm
• (See this resource for how to use the features of these database for citation
analysis.)
• Key Databases
• Web of Science find who has cited a particular article or book. This is the main
database to use. Good for tracking journal article citations. Poor coverage of New
Zealand journals and stronger on science than business
• Business Source Premier has Times cited in this database links for some articles.
It also has a Cited references button on the top of the page menu bar. Note that
the 'cited bys' are only to other items in the EBSCOhost database
• ScienceDirect look for the Cited by link for individual records. There is also a link
to Cited by in Scopus for individual records. The cited by articles are again. like
BSP, only to those titles included in the ScienceDirect and Scopus databases
Scopus is related to ScienceDirect (same company owns them). It has a clean
search interfaceand it is easy to find the cited by link to the right side of each
item in a results list
• Google scholar look for Cited by links for some of the results
Business Source Premier and some other databases,
list “Times cited in this database” both for article
and its references.
Business Source Premier
-Along with some other databases enable references to articles to
be examined.
Do references demonstrate that a comprehensive body of literature has been explored?
Does the reference list combine both seminal (classic) and contemporary (ie: under 5 years old)
literature?
Scopus database
Link from Science Direct article to “cited by” references
Science Direct database -
Links through to Scopus, a database that lists
citing across 16 million peer reviewed articles
Web of Science database has a citation index which can
graphically represent the citation relationships between
academic papers
Ranking the academic journals. Example of Management journals in
Journal Citation Reports database sorted by impact factor.
Impact factor – The number of times articles from a journal are cited within 2 years divided by the
total number of articles published in the same journal during the 2 year period
Tips for Finding
high quality
academic articles
•Search specialist academic
business databases and limit
database searches to “peer
reviewed” or “scholarly” journals
Use features of the databases to
view & evaluate cited references
& cited by listings
•Use Google Scholar “cited by”
features and author search.
•Use Scopus & Web of Science
research literature databases &
the Journal Citation Reports
database to see an articles
impact & journal rankings by
various factors.
Also critically evaluate the article:
•Who is the target audience? When was the article
published?
•Does the title accurately reflect the contents?
•Is the abstract to the article accurate, coherent, nonevaluative, succinct?
•Is there a good introduction which orientates the reader
to the content?
•What are the authors credentials and affiliations? Are
he/she/they an authority in the area?
•Does the research design clearly explain the methodology
and research approach?
•Can you use the keywords to extend a search of the topic
further?
•Is the literature review broad, focussed and balanced?
•Does the conclusion successfully present main points of the
research, has it demonstrated that the research has
presented fresh insights or perspectives?
•Does the reference list demonstrate a comprehensive body
of literature was explored?
(Adapted from : Stockhausen L & Conrick,M. (2002) Making sense of
research: A guide for critiquing a paper. Contemporary Nurse, 14, 38-48)