[AISWorld] Senior Scholars Journal Basket Survey

Tue Apr 12 19:28:20 EDT 2016

I'll use this as a springboard to jump onto my hobby horse.

Journals are pretty much dead or dying. I say that as an editor of a journal.

Look, when was the last time you went regularly to the library to read your discipline journals to see what's in them -- be honest, I'm talking the old 20th century regular visit -- monthly usually. Can you even remember?

I'm sure that there will be one or two who protest loudly, but for the vast majority, years ago.

These days people look for articles, not journals, they use the internet, google scholar, academia, half a dozen alerting services. Even publishers know this -- download one of their articles and the more advanced of them have a pop-up of related articles, from any journal under their umbrella.

The only time anyone looks for a journal is when you want to publish. The economics of that, particularly subscription and gold open access, is becoming unsustainable.

Journals were a use of the available 19th century technology to economically get the word around colleagues. In our area I should not have to trumpet the phrase "disruptive technology" but it is happening -- the green open access movement, repositories, post-publication reviewing -- all of these different models are the signs of (moderate) chaos induced by those changes. What will emerge I do not have the chutzpah to name, or to predict when it will appear and gradually become adopted. Movable type and the codex took 200 years. But it will happen.

Models such as the basket will be (are becoming?) less useful.

<ducks and runs>

Cheers
John

Undergraduates should learn to use the library;
Masters students should use the library; and
Doctoral students should add new knowledge to the library.

-----Original Message-----
From: AISWorld [mailto:aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org] On Behalf Of MurphJen at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, 13 April 2016 8:49 AM
To: aisworld at lists.aisnet.org
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] Senior Scholars Journal Basket Survey

I like John's suggestion in point 3 below.  I think we get hung up on  top journals when the real artifact we create is the article.  A journal  list is the easy way out of judging quality but actually does not validate the quality of the individual article.  I've read many articles from top  journals that I don't cite and don't use while there are many articles from  lesser journals I cite and use.  Does this make the unused articles better quality?  I don't think so, it just benefits from the halo effect. I think  we should check the quality of the specific articles when judging for promotion and tenure and instead of using a journal list perhaps use the h index or other  measures of how much an article is used as more reflective of the quality of the  of the researcher (and yes I know this raises other questions, but we will never  get over the journal list fight as long as it is assumed that there are only a  few really good journals).....murray

In a message dated 4/8/2016 6:21:11 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, nosek at temple.edu writes:

Hi,

Just a couple of comments:
1. I know Alan and  Doug.  I respect them and although I won't speak for them, I think  they are creating a basket of journals to provide more IS journal outlets  that are being demanded by deans of business schools who are chasing U.S.  and News rankings, which BTW are not good for education.  Alan and  Doug are broad thinkers whose work crosses many disciplines.
2.  Intellectually, IS is cool because it can broadly cross many disciplines.
I  like to build effective information systems that require me to delve into many disciplines.  My most-cited works are in top CS and Human  Experience journals - none of which makes it into this "highly-rated  basket" of journals (which I just looked up).
3. I repeat a suggestion  that I think may still be used by one highly-ranked school for those going  up for tenure and promotion: forget baskets, have them submit their top  three journal articles for review to be judged on creativeness and quality.
4. If this fails, I repeat a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that one is hired as a tenured, full professor, and is given a reduction in rank for  every published journal article - so only top-quality, journal articles  will be published.

Take Care,

John
John Nosek,  Ph.D.
Professor, Computer & Information Sciences Temple  University

Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2016 09:47:25 -0400
From: Prashant  Palvia <pcpalvia at uncg.edu>
To: "Dennis, Alan R."  <ardennis at indiana.edu>,    AISWorld
<aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] Senior Scholars  Journal Basket Survey
Message-ID:
<CABvY-XuzA3qgHrdwR9AAzNQJnjHn6QhB2naE=ZxxxasBPviFoQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type:  text/plain; charset=UTF-8

My recommendation is to use an inclusive  process in deciding the top journals, perhaps a survey of all IS  academics.  Also, let's stop calling it "senior scholars" basket as it  creates a perception of "establishment"
fiat. You could call it the "AIS"  basket.

Thanks for your efforts.

Prashant Palvia, Ph.D., Joe  Rosenthal Excellence Professor Bryan School of Business and  Economics The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
426 Bryan  Building, Greensboro, NC 27402, USA, Ph: 336.334.4818 Editor in Chief,  *JGITM*, http://www.tandfonline.com/UGIT Associate Editor, *Information  & Management* The World IT Project  http://www.WorldITproject.com <http://WorldITproject.com>

On  Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 11:24 PM, Dennis, Alan R.  <ardennis at indiana.edu>
wrote:

> Several years ago, the AIS  College of Senior Scholars created
> "Basket" of eight journals  recognized as top journals in our field.
> In the normal course of  activity, the Senior Scholars are evaluating
> the role and
effects
>  of the Basket. We invite comments from the entire community on the
current
> Basket and how to improve it. All comments are welcome and  will be
> considered by the Task Force as it prepares its  report.
>
> Please complete our brief
> survey<https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F3VB8HK>
(
>  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F3VB8HK) to help influence the future
> of our field. Please respond no later than May 2,  2016.
>
> Thanks
>
> Alan Dennis and Doug Vogel (Task  Force Co-Chairs)
> ============================================================
> Alan  Dennis
> Professor and John T. Chambers Chair of Internet  Systems
> www.kelley.iu.edu/ardennis<http://www.kelley.iu.edu/ardennis>
>  AIS Vice President for Conferences (aisnet.org/?page=Conferences)<
> http://aisnet.org/?page=Conferences)>
> Editor-in-Chief, AIS  Transactions on Replication Research (
> aisel.aisnet.org/trr)<http://aisel.aisnet.org/trr>
>  Editor-in-Chief, Foundations and Trends in IS
> (nowpublishers.com/isy<
> http://nowpublishers.com/isy>)
>  ============================================================
>
>  _______________________________________________
> AISWorld mailing  list
>  AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org

_______________________________________________
AISWorld  mailing  list
AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org

_______________________________________________
AISWorld mailing list
AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org

Important Notice: The contents of this email are intended solely for the named addressee and are confidential; any unauthorised use, reproduction or storage of the contents is expressly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and any attachments immediately and advise the sender by return email or telephone.

Deakin University does not warrant that this email and any attachments are error or virus free.