Fluctuations in value: the shifting worth of journal articles in educational administration

ABSTRACT

Journal rankings are increasingly being used as proxies for assessing the quality and worth of individual faculty and their contribution to institutional performance. Problematic within this agenda is the historical mapping and projection of current journal rankings. Individual papers are being assessed against criteria far removed – temporally – from when decisions were made regarding where to publish. Drawing upon three examples of publishing in educational administration journals, this paper explores how the assessment of paper quality is dislocated from the scholarly labour that generates those outputs in the first place. Different ranking systems and often lengthy submission to publication processes mean that the worth of individual papers can dramatically shift independent of any actual engagement with the content of the paper. The value of an individual’s track record can fluctuate quickly and any intervention to alter the situation takes time to come into effect. This paper does not suggest replacing one ranking system with another, or even remove research assessment. Rather, it offers a means of problematising the application of journal rankings by calling into question their timelessness. In doing, it provides the intellectual resources to make strange the status quo and open the prospect of alternatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational research
• ERA
• research assessment
• research leadership
• capacity building
• academic labour
• educational leadership
• educational administration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Eacott

Scott Eacott, PhD, is an educational administration theorist, Director of the Office of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Saskatchewan. He has previously held positions at the University of Newcastle (where he remains a conjoint) and the Australian Catholic University. Scott’s research interests and contributions fall into three main areas: a relational approach to educational administration and leadership scholarship; theory and methodology in educational administration; and leadership preparation and development. His latest book Educational leadership relationally (2015, Sense), articulates a relational approach to scholarship in educational leadership, management and administration. Email: [email protected]