Organizations and Markets

Management Journal Impact Factors 2005

14 March 2007 at 2:23 pm Nicolai Foss 6 comments

| Nicolai Foss |

The 2006 figures aren’t there, but the 2005 ones are out on the Web of Science (SSCI) (you should be able to find these if your library has access to the Web of Science; look under “Journal Citation Reports”). 

Some direct observations:

• The  two most heavy ones are MIS Quarterly (IF: 4.978) and (gasp!) the Academy of Management Review (IF: 4.254). Apparently, management is dominated by informatics and muzzy sociology.  
• Research Policy is now number 8 on the list (IF: 1.835), while Organization Science is number 6 (IF: 1.989). Strategic Management Journal lies exactly between these two with an impact factor of 1.897.
• Human Resource Management is number 4 on the list (Administrative Science Quarterly is #3), which pleases me considerably as I will be editing a special issue of HRM.
• Leadership Quarterly is number 9.
• The highest ranked international business journal is Journal of International Business Studies which with an impact factor of 1.25 just makes number 23. IB doesn’t seem to bring you a lot of academic impact.
• The still relatively new journal, Industrial and Corporate Change, is number 24.
• I have actually never heard about Corporate Governance, but it is number 14.
• The hardcore industrial organization-based Journal of Economics and Management Strategy is number 36 (good news actually!).

Some less direct observations:

• In terms of disciplines underlying management, sociology seems  dominant among the top journals (particularly, AMR, ASQ and Org Science).
• The top 19 journals are apparently all US-based (although some, such as Research Policy, has significant Euro representation). Number 20, Organization, is a Euro Journal.
• Of the “fields” in management, HRM, technology management, and information-system management and, to a smaller extent, strategic management, are heavy hitters. Leadership and corporate governance are also well placed. 
• IB is way down on the list (although some IB research does get published in some of the top generalist journals). There are no business ethics journals among the top 70 journals.
• It may be time to remember the famous aphorism about the dietary habits of flies.

Entry filed under: - Foss -, Institutions.