Not Quite as Simple as A-B-C

Abstract

Evaluating the research contributions of faculty members is an important task in the tenure and promotion processes for many departments in a variety of colleges and universities. A few years ago, on behalf of their Department of Management—which is part of the College of Business in a large, Midwestern university—the authors embarked on an effort to create a procedure for rating and ranking academic publication outlets to supplement a recently revised set of tenure and promotion standards. This article describes the process the authors undertook and some of the issues they had to resolve during the effort. They also reflect on the implications of ranking publications for our department and the potential effects of journal ranking on scholarship in the academic community as a whole.