Assessing the Relative Impacts of Economics Journals

A CADEMIC JOURNALS have played an increasingly important role in the dissemination of scientific information throughout this century, particularly during the last decade.1 This fact is no less true in economics than in other disciplines. The number of journals has also increased greatly in recent decades. For these and other reasons, several recent efforts have been made to judge the various qualities and merits of individual journals. Besides being a rather enjoyable form of naval-gazing for those within a given discipline, such activities also provide valuable information. Where articles are published can affect one's promotion, tenure, and salary at one's present job; it can also affect one's brand name and the ability to change jobs. The purpose of this study is to provide a ranking of journals based on their relative influences on the writings of academics, either within the economics profession or in the world at large.2 The measurement used to create this ranking, described in detail below, is the number of citations that authors make to articles appearing in various journals. After a brief discussion of several previous studies, we proceed to a more complete explanation of our procedures and results.