Australian Research Output in Economics and Business: High Volume, Low Impact?

This paper investigates publication patterns of Australian academics in Economics & Business. I show that this discipline follows the general Australian trend of declining impact, measured as citations per paper, from the mid-1990s. However, the gap in Australia's ranking of publication quantity (number of papers) and publication quality (impact) is much wider in Economics & Business than in other disciplines. The discipline combines the highest ranking in quantity with the lowest ranking in quality. Seven possible explanations for this pattern are discussed.

[1]  Hristos Doucouliagos,et al.  Substitution and Complementarity in the Creation and Communication of Australian University Research , 2007 .

[2]  Carol T. Kulik.  On Editing in an International Context , 2005 .

[3]  Paul Bourke,et al.  Publication types, citation rates and evaluation , 1996, Scientometrics.

[4]  Philip Stevens.  Academic Salaries in the UK and US , 2004, National Institute Economic Review.

[5]  D. King.  The scientific impact of nations , 2004, Nature.

[6]  Linda Butler.  Identifying "highly-rated" journals - an Australian case study , 2004, Scientometrics.

[7]  D. A. King,et al.  The Scientific Impact of Nations: What different countries get for their research spending , 2004 .

[8]  Ofer H. Azar.  Rejections and the Importance of First Response Times , 2003 .

[9]  L. Butler,et al.  Modifying publication practices in response to funding formulas , 2003 .

[10]  L. Butler,et al.  Explaining Australia’s increased share of ISI publications—the effects of a funding formula based on publication counts , 2003 .

[11]  M. Amin,et al.  Impact factors: use and abuse. , 2003, Medicina.

[12]  L. Butler.  A list of published papers is no measure of value , 2002, Nature.

[13]  M. Wallis,et al.  Researchers' use of libraries and other information sources: current patterns and future trends , 2002 .

[14]  Jason D. Mitchell,et al.  Professors and hamburgers: an international comparison of real academic salaries , 2000 .

[15]  Ron Sanchez,et al.  Modularity, flexibility, and knowledge management in product and organization design , 1996 .

[16]  H. Thomas,et al.  Rivalry and the Industry Model of Scottish Knitwear Producers , 1995 .

[17]  David Karpin,et al.  Enterprising nation: renewing Australia's managers to meet the challenges of the Asia-Pacific century [Karpin report] , 1995 .

[18]  A. Bandura,et al.  Social Cognitive Theory of Organizational Management , 1989 .

[19]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Using a GDSS to Facilitate Group Consensus: Some Intended and Unintended Consequences , 1988, MIS Q..

[20]  Jean-Francois Richard,et al.  The Encompassing Principle and Its Application to Testing Non-nested Hypotheses , 1986 .

[21]  J. Knetsch,et al.  Willingness to Pay and Compensation Demanded: Experimental Evidence of an Unexpected Disparity in Measures of Value , 1984 .

[22]  D. Midgley,et al.  Innovativeness: The Concept and Its Measurement , 1978 .

[23]  P. Hammond.  Equity, Arrow's Conditions, and Rawls' Difference Principle , 1976 .

[24]  R. Ball,et al.  An empirical evaluation of accounting income numbers , 1968 .