Beyond Bibliometrics

There may be good reason for considering bibliometrics as one of many factors when deciding which journal should receive a manuscript that is ready for submission. Most authors want their work to be noticed by their colleagues, and bibliometrics are an (imperfect) measure of this. However, as Berg, Huijbens, and Gutzon Larsen (2016) have demonstrated, metrics for measuring ‘excellence’ are woven into the fabric of the modern, neoliberal university, and publishing decisions are made within this institutional context. Journals and authors operate in a pressurized academic environment where administrators are seeking to meet ‘performance goals,’ newly-minted PhDs are seeking employment, and junior faculty are seeking promotion and tenure. In many universities and national higher education systems, the standards for measuring ‘excellence’ and ‘performance’, at the level of the university, the department, and the individual, explicitly include publication in ‘top-tier’ journals. Political Geography cannot single-handedly change this obsession with ranking by ‘burying’ our status in the top tier. At the same time though, we will use these measures as an opportunity for questioning the ways in which they are often accepted as objective measures of a journal's quality.