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A Critique of the Bucket Classification of Journals: The ABDC List as an Example
Author(s) -
Moosa Imad A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/1475-4932.12258
Subject(s) - quality (philosophy) , abandonment (legal) , operations research , ranking (information retrieval) , computer science , operations management , marketing , actuarial science , business , economics , information retrieval , mathematics , political science , law , epistemology , philosophy
Journal ranking is a hazardous endeavour even if it is based on objective criteria. Additional problems arise from the use of an opinion‐based bucket classification of journals. As a bucket classification system, the ABDC list encourages rent‐seeking and arbitrage whereby a researcher goes for the lowest‐quality journal within each bucket or moves to another bucket. The quality of research output should not be judged on the basis of a predetermined list. It would be beneficial if the A ustralian B usiness D eans C ouncil list were abandoned for the same reasons that led to the abandonment of the E xcellence in R esearch for A ustralia list.