Academic Impact:
What it means and how to calculate it
Prof. Neal Ashkanasy
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About the Presenter
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Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Organizational
Behavior (2007-2014)
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Published by Wiley-Blackwell
First published in 1981
2012 2-year Impact Factor = 3.626
Top 5, Applied Psychology
Associate Editor, Academy of Management
Review (2011-2014)
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Published by the Academy of Management
2012 2-year Impact Factor = 7.895
#1 Journal in Management
Associate Editor, Emotion Review
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Book Series Editor, Research on Emotion in
Organizations
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Published by Emerald, JAI Press Imprint
First published in 2005
Editorial boards (selection)
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Academy of Management Journal (1996-2007)
Journal of Applied Psychology
Academy of Management Learning &
Education
Journal of Management
Personality & Individual Differences
Published by Sage on behalf of the International
Society for Research on Emotions
2012 2-year Impact Factor = 1.894
First published 2009
https://www.business.uq.edu.au/staff/details/neal-ashkanasy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Ashkanasy
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Outline
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Citation Indices
Meaning of citations
Boosting your citations
Journal Impact factors
Concluding Comments
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Citation Indexing
• Developed in its modern form by Eugene Garfield of the Institute
for Scientific Information (ISI)
– Now published by Thomson Reuters Scientific
• The Web of Science (Thomson Reuter Scientific)
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Sciences Citation Index (SCI)
Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI)
Conference Proceeding Citation Index
Book Citation Index (New)
Select “All Databases” (broadest)
• Click the little orange down arrow next to “Web of Science Core Collection”
to see the full menu (see next slide).
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WoS Start Page
Click to see menu, including “All databases”
Click to see menu, including “Cited Reference Search”
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Alternatives to WoS
• SCOPUS
– Elsevier
– Broader then SSCI
– New: SCOPUS “Journal Analyzer”
• Research Gate
• Academia
• Google Scholar
– See http://www.harzing.com
– “Publish or Perish”
– Calculates ‘h’ and ‘g’ citation indices
• Authors
• Journals
– Quick and easy to use
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h- and g-indices
• Citations per publication
• Hirsch’s “h-index”
– h = no. publications with at least h citations
– e.g., h = 6 if six publications have been cited 6 or more times
• Egghe’s “g-index”
– g = no. publications whose combined citation count is at least
g2 (or average citations for the top g pubs ≥ g)
– e.g., g = 6 if the average no of citations for the top 6
publications is at least 6.
– Gives more weight to highly cited articles than h.
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Meaning of Citations
• Article is cited in WoS-Indexed journals
– Citations in other journals and books do not count
– But citations to non-WoS-Indexed journal articles, book
chapters, and books are counted
• WoS is three databases!
– (Source) “Search”
– “Cited Reference Search”
• Click the little blue down arrow next to “Basic Search”
(see Slide 5)
– “Secret” data based used to calculate IF’s.
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Why are articles cited?
• Genuine contribution to the literature
– Ideas cited more than data
– Books cited more than journal articles (??!!)
• Handy references
– Review articles (e.g., AMR, JoM)
– Snapshots (e.g., J. J. Ray in the 1980’s)
• ‘Bad’ citations?
• Fashion
– Harzing’s study of mis-citations
• Harzing, A. W. 2002. Are our referencing errors undermining our
scholarship and credibility? The case of expatriate failure rates. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 23: 127-148.
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Boosting Your Citations
• Publish in the top-tier journals
• Write quality articles that attract attention and
interest
• Advertise
• Self-cite (!!??)
• Contact Thomson Reuters re. errors
• Make publications available in the public domain
– See SHERPA RoMEO database
– http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php
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Journal Impact Factor
• Calculated as N citations in year y to articles published in y-1 and
y-2 divided by N “citable” articles published in y-1 and y-”2.
• E.g. 2013 impact factor = Number of citations in 2013 to articles
published in 2011 and 2012, divided by the number of “citable”
articles published in 2011 and 2012.
• “Citable” articles = “Articles”, “Reviews”, and ( more recently)
“Conference Proceedings”.
• E.g., AMR 2013 Impact Factor calculated as …
– Total citations in 2013 to articles published in 2011 and 2012 = 469
• Cites in 2013 to articles published in 2011 = 315; in 2012 = 154
– Total citable articles published in 2011 and 2012 = 60
• Number of citable articles published in 2011 = 30; in 2012 = 30
– AMR’s 2013 Impact Factor = 469/60 = 7.817
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5-Year Indices
• WoS recently introduced 5-year indices, more
applicable to the social sciences where the review
process is typically 18-30 months rather than 6-12
months typical in the sciences
• 5-Year Impact Factor
– Same as 2-year, but calculated over 5 years
• Article Influence Score
– Takes account of the quality of the citing journals
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2013 Management Journals
Ranked by 5-Year Impact Factor
Rank
1
Title
ACAD MANAG ANN
No. cites
778
2-Year IF
7.333
5-Year IF
10.154
Immediacy
0.6
15
Half-life
4.4
Eigen
0.00713
Influence
6.56
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ACAD MANAGE REV
17707
7.817
9.698
1.414
29
>10.0
0.01441
5.317
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ACAD MANAGE J
19426
4.974
8.443
0.541
74
>10.0
0.02533
5.239
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MIS QUART
8705
5.405
8.157
1.103
58
>10.0
0.01039
2.785
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J MANAGE
9110
6.862
8.027
0.657
70
>10.0
0.01798
4.134
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J OPER MANAG
5596
4.478
7.718
0.525
40
8.3
0.00697
2.062
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ADMIN SCI QUART
11897
2.394
7.057
0.471
17
>10.0
0.00784
5.386
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J APPL PSYCHOL
22440
4.367
6.952
0.471
70
>10.0
0.02853
3.538
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STRATEGIC MANAGE J
17225
2.993
5.929
0.419
86
>10.0
0.0188
3.087
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PERS PSYCHOL
4560
4.54
5.845
0.464
28
>10.0
0.00746
3.459
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ORGAN RES METHODS
2727
3.525
5.713
0.308
26
7.9
0.00825
2.954
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J INT BUS STUD
6676
3.594
5.534
0.87
46
9.8
0.01136
1.991
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ORGAN SCI
10499
3.807
5.512
0.319
94
>10.0
0.02303
3.595
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J MANAGE STUD
5473
3.277
5.196
0.824
51
8.6
0.01174
2.294
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J SUPPLY CHAIN MANAG
1072
3.717
4.946
0.621
29
5.8
0.002
1.078
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J INF TECHNOL
1282
3.789
4.917
0.476
21
6.4
0.00376
1.872
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RES ORGAN BEHAV
2236
1.25
4.87
0
7
>10.0
0.00272
3.538
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J ORGAN BEHAV
5999
3.262
4.734
0.551
69
>10.0
0.01003
2.126
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INT J MANAG REV
1066
2.673
4.468
0.52
25
6.1
0.003
1.615
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LONG RANGE PLANN
1588
2.111
4.365
0.591
22
>10.0
0.00291
1.382
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Closing Comments
• Citations count more than ever as an
index of impact
• Already the primary criterion in the
sciences
– Already a key criterion in the social
sciences
– Now becoming a key criterion in the
organization sciences
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Thank You!
n.ashkanasy@uq.edu.au
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