Assessing journals through a three-dimensional framework based on article citation, author and institution influence

Abstract

Journal assessment is of great significance to promote the development of academic platforms. Citation analysis is a recognised tool to assess the citation performance of journals. However, due to the shortcomings such as the inflated Journal Impact Factor and heterogeneity of the citations, additional dimensions are necessary to be considered to balance with the article citation. This article constructs a three-dimensional journal assessment framework to measure the comprehensive influence of a journal based on article citation, author and institution influence. The CRITIC-Entropy weighting method is employed to calculate the weighted average scores for the three dimensions, respectively. Then, a newly defined Pareto-dominated set-based sum of TOPSIS score (PDS-based STS) approach is developed to assess the comprehensive influence of journals. A sample of 76 journals in Economics field is selected to demonstrate the effectiveness and validity of the proposed assessment method. The Chartered Association of Business Schools’ Academic Journal Guide 2021 (CABS-AJG 2021) which is an expert-based journal rating is chosen as a baseline model. It has been found that the assessment method using PDS-based STS shows a more rational journal ranking than that based on the Journal Impact Factor if using the CABS-AJG 2021’s ratings as the benchmark model.