Evaluating the Use of Journal Prestige as a Metric for Academic Research Faculty: A Case of Library and Information Science Faculty in the United States and Canada

Abstract

This article addresses concerns about the effect of extradisciplinary researchers on recent rankings of library and information science (LIS) school researchers’ productivity by proposing a measure based on Laura Manzari’s 2013 study of LIS journal prestige. Journal ratings from Manzari’s study are assigned to the publications in each of more than 400 LIS faculty-researcher curricula vitae. A cumulative prestige rating for each researcher’s publications is then calculated, and rankings for faculty members and LIS programs are derived. The findings indicate that the cumulative prestige rating is a strong indicator of professor, comparing favorably with early publications of Budd, while diminishing the impact of shifts toward a greater number of extradisciplinary researchers in LIS education on the rankings of top contributors to LIS literature. These findings are important for offering an alternative perspective of scholarly productivity. This approach may prove beneficial for LIS program directors and committees in making tenure and promotion decisions among their faculty.