New Rank in Economics

[beagle07]

One more thing:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it is my impression that all else equal it is more difficult to get into top journals if you don't have a top30 PhD and don't work at a top50 institution. If this is the case, one might know he/she has a quality paper, have difficulty getting it into his/her journal of choice, and then opt for a lower-ranked journal just to get the stuff in writing to build a portfolio of publications and so it is possible to cite the paper in future research.

[israelecon]

Originally Posted by beagle07

I think paradox was saying that it is unprofessional for your professor to insult and demean a journal instead of using evidence and argument. To tell a student that the hard work and intellectual pursuits of hundreds of people is on the same level as physical refuse is a lesson in arrogance and nastiness.

i don't think this was the point.
the point was not that people's efforts are on the same level as garbage. the point was that basically such a publication is valueless as research. i.e. if it can't get published in a better place its not worth much research wise.
this is how he evaluates it. nothing wrong with that. just because someone put a lot of effort into something doesn't make it good. we aren't little children in school anymore that get evaluated based on effort. people going into academia have to realize that they are entering the big-leagues now where they will be evaluated on quality of output regardless of the effort input.
and i don't accept the notion that people brought up here that good research sometimes ends up in such a low rank journal. yes, good research can get bumped down the journal rankings for all kinds of reasons, but there is a limit to how far down it is bumped for technical reasons. there is an amount of bumping that is simply a result of not good research.
btw, nobody will build a good academic career from publishing even 50 papers a year in low ranked journals. in other words even if you are a single hitter, you won't make it unless you do hit a home run every once in a while.

[israelecon]

Originally Posted by beagle07

One more thing:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it is my impression that all else equal it is more difficult to get into top journals if you don't have a top30 PhD and don't work at a top50 institution. If this is the case, one might know he/she has a quality paper, have difficulty getting it into his/her journal of choice, and then opt for a lower-ranked journal just to get the stuff in writing to build a portfolio of publications and so it is possible to cite the paper in future research.

this is just not true. i know several economists who have published a few articles in AER while they were professors at pretty low-ranked universities.

[486hunter]

Originally Posted by israelecon

btw, nobody will build a good academic career from publishing even 50 papers a year in low ranked journals. in other words even if you are a single hitter, you won't make it unless you do hit a home run every once in a while.

Of course, even a singles hitter needs to hit a homerun once in a while. And I'm not suggesting that one can build a successful career by publishing in obscure journals. What I am suggesting is that there is an alternative to the model of publishing 1-2 articles a year in QJE/AER etc. There are a number of second/third tier journals that are well-regarded in particular subfields and these journals might be an appropriate place for a paper that doesn't have the widespread appeal necessary to make it into a top journal.

It also depends upon what one's goals are. Sometimes you have an idea for an interesting paper but the analysis is straightforward and doesn't involve anything particularly clever (no instrumental variables, no structural models, etc). Or you simply want to summarize past literature and suggest where it may be lacking. Nothing fancy but something that is still interesting to those studying a particular topic. If your goal is simply to publish in top journals you wouldn't touch this sort of work. But if your goal is to do research that you find interesting, there is still a place for this type of work in the literature and there are probably others who will be interested in what you have to say. Academia is a pretty big place and there's room for lots of stuff.

[paradox3696]

Originally Posted by israelecon

why unprofessional?
why is trying to keep a high level, and accepting only the best unprofessional?
rather, i would think publishing junk just to get it published is unprofessional.
it seems you think professional = mediocrity.

Read what he had to say again. The comment is not only unprofessional, it is outright arrogant! Listen, we all can agree that there are some good articles can be found in SEJ. And you are going to find some bad articles in AER. And u cannot keep a high level and accepting the best without the others. Simple as that!

Originally Posted by israelecon
in any case, i actually asked a professor of mine about SEJ (because of this discussion and he said: "i would rather throw the article in the garbage than publish it there". i think this does say something about the article

.

[paradox3696]

Originally Posted by beagle07

I think paradox was saying that it is unprofessional for your professor to insult and demean a journal instead of using evidence and argument. To tell a student that the hard work and intellectual pursuits of hundreds of people is on the same level as physical refuse is a lesson in arrogance and nastiness.

Thank you. You have said it better that I did!

[paradox3696]

If you go by that logic and reasoning, you might as well tell all the other lower rank universities to close shop altogether (they cannot teach the best out of the students etc etc etc). Now that sound interesting, doesnt it?

Originally Posted by israelecon

i don't think this was the point.
the point was not that people's efforts are on the same level as garbage. the point was that basically such a publication is valueless as research. i.e. if it can't get published in a better place its not worth much research wise.
this is how he evaluates it. nothing wrong with that. just because someone put a lot of effort into something doesn't make it good.

[raamar]

Still I couldnt have been able to see the paper, could someone help please?

[econphilomath]

Ok here is the general rank from the paper. there are several others.

School Rank: Harvard U 1 UC Berkeley 2 Princeton U 3 MIT 4 Yale U 5 U Michigan 6 New York U 7 UCLA 8 Stanford U 9 U Chicago 10 Columbia U 11 Northwestern U 12 UC San Diego 13 U Wisconsin, Madison 14 Boston U 15 U Pennsylvania 16 Ohio State U 17 Michigan State U 18 Cornell U 19 U Virginia 20 U Maryland, College Park 21 U Illinois, Urbana 22 Carnegie Mellon U 23 Duke U 24 UC Davis 25 U Southern California 26 U Texas, Austin 27 Brown U 28 U Minnesota 29 North Carolina State U 30 Iowa State U 31 Vanderbilt U 32 Johns Hopkins U 33 Syracuse U 34 Pennsylvania State U 35 Georgetown U 36 Boston College 37 California Inst Tech 38 U of Rochester 39 UNC, Chapel Hill 40 George Mason U 41 U Colorado, Boulder 42 UC Santa Cruz 43 City University of New York (CUNY) 44 U Washington 45 U Illinois, Chicago 46 Arizona State U 47 Rice U 48 Texas A&M U 49 Georgia State U 50 UC Santa Barbara 51 Florida State U 52 Indiana U 53 George Washington U 54 Rutgers U 55 UC Riverside 56 U Oregon 57 U Houston 58 U Pittsburgh 59 U Iowa 60 U Wyoming 61 U Arizona 62 U Kentucky 63 U Florida 64 Southern Methodist U 65 Clemson U 66 Purdue U 67 U Connecticut 68 Washington U, St. Louis 69 U Massachusetts, Amherst 70 Emory U 71 UC Irvine 72 U South Carolina 73 U Georgia 74 Virginia Tech 75 U Albany 76 SUNY Binghamton 77 Wayne State U 78 U Wisconsin, Milwaukee 79 U Delaware 80 American U 81 U Missouri, Columbia 82 U Kansas 83 RPI 84 SUNY Buffalo 85 U Nebraska, Lincoln 86 Florida International U 87 U Notre Dame 88 U Alabama 89 U Oklahoma 90 Brandeis U 91 Louisiana State U 92 SUNY Stony Brook Oregon State U 93 94 Lehigh U 95 U Miami 96 Auburn U 97 New School U 98 Washington State U Tulane Ud 99 100 Oklahoma State U 101 Southern Illinois U, Carbondale 102 Northern Illinois U 103 West Virginia U 104 U New Orleans 105 Colorado State U 106 U Tennessee, Knoxville 107

[raamar]

thank you very much econphilomath