EADI Task group on Journal Ranking
At the EADI Directors' meeting in 2003 it was agreed to work on a European multidisciplinary journal rating list, because institutes are faced with the monodisciplinary and Anglo-Saxon bias of prevailing citation indices and impact scores. How do institutes develop an efficient and relevant research and publication strategy in the absence of adapted measuring instruments? In addition, EADI members realised that similar problems could arise with assessments of our M.A. programmes and, in the longer run, with the accreditation procedure to be launched in the Bologna framework.
Instruments adapted to both interdisciplinary and area-oriented research and postgraduate teaching needed to be developed. In order for these instruments to be credible and accepted by the academic community and by funders, they would need to be international, professional and objective. For both education and research, it was agreed to set up a task group within EADI to be the forum most suited to such a benchmarking exercise. After a first round of adding journals to the existing Ceres list (a rating list developed by the Dutch Research School for Resource Studies fo Development), now all EADI members are asked to contribute to the list.
Dear EADI colleague,
Last year EADI adopted the publication accreditation methodolology that had been developed by the Dutch Research School for Resource Studies for Development, Ceres. A selected group of EADI contact persons was approached in 2005 to add relevant journals to the then existing Ceres list. This year we want to start making it an annual round of updating and correcting the list.
Could you please look at http://ceres.fss.uu.nl, under rating, and add journals and book publishers that are lacking and that you think should be included. Please also add if the journals are scientifically refereed or not (and in cases of book publishers if they use a referee system for their book publications or not). Please send your additions (or if you have them corrections) to Lolita van Toledo, and please do so before May 1. We would particularly appreciate your efforts to include all relevant social science journals published in your country.
Some further information might be useful.
For journals, the Ceres/EADI framework uses the following rating principles:
Category A: journals included in the ISI Web of Knowledge (the basis for, among others, the Social Science Citation Index), with relatively high impact scores (the 'relative' here means that the ranking position is determined in relation to the domains as defined by CERES, which are explained on the website; we will now add domains psychology and health, education/knowledge/innovation studies, and possibly international and human rights law, and a beta-gamma domain);
Category B: other journals included in the ISI Web of Knowledge;
Category C: journals not included by ISI, but with a proven refereeing system;
Category D: other (mainly) scholarly journals;
Category E: journals for a (mainly) non-scholarly audience ('popularising' journals).
As to publishers, the rough distinctions between the categories A/B/C, D and E are relatively clear. Within the A/B/C classification more work still needs to be done, in the absence of a system such as the ISI classification for books.
Many thanks in advance
Ton Dietz
Director of Ceres, and secretary of the EADI publications accreditation ad hoc group, also on behalf of
Wil Hout
Chair CERES/EADI Publications Accreditation Committee
News
Schedule
The schedule for the work on publication rating is as follows: March 2006: CERES and EADI members are invited to suggest additions and corrections to the existing rating list. The CERES office compiles all suggestions made.
April 2006: The CERES office asks some librarians for advice, as well as sister schools, selected other institutes and international organisations (such as OSSREA,CODESRIA and FLACSO), where applicable.
May 2006: The CERES office prepares a document for the meeting of the Publications Accreditation Committee, consisting of scholars working in the Netherlands, and with inputs from a small committee from within EADI.
June 2006: Meeting of the Publications Accreditation Committee and advice for the CERES Board.
September 2006: New rating on CERES and EADI websites.
