Greetings from the Cambridge Business Economics Conference at beautiful Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge which is where I am as I am putting together this 1st reminder letter between making eight presentations. This survey is about Journal Ranking in various areas of Business, why individuals publish, perceptions of the ethics around publishing, and the outcomes from sabbaticals. It is totally anonymous and you shall not be asked to identify yourself. This survey is being conducted by Dr. Shawn M. Carraher, an Oxford Journal Distinguished Research Professor in order to better understand how to accurately assess journal rankings and why individuals publish. The portions about ethics are for COPE (the Council of Publishing Ethics) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services in order to examine the perceptions of researchers to their proposed changes to the IRB process. I learned quite a bit about the proposed changes to the IRB process just putting together the survey so even if the questions aren't of interest to you it might be a good idea to take a look at them to see what is being proposed. If you are one of the 177 individuals who has already completed this survey - then thank you - and please also consider the surveys on publication ethics and/or sabbaticals. If not, please consider completing these. For those who helped sell out the first edition of my Servant Leadership book with Raj Selladurai - thank you as well.
For the Management portion of the survey this is the 7th year of the journal quality survey although this is the first year that we are including all divisions of the AOM as well as potentially all members of the AOM. For the first six years we only included reviewers for approximately half of the AOM Divisions. As many of you likely know the AACSB has voted on a new set of global standards on April 7, 2013 which has been one of John Fernandes' [CEO of the AACSB] long-term goals.
I have had the honor of working with him throughout his time as CEO and completed several interviews with him in which he has talked about what he planned to accomplish as CEO. The sections on journals are VERY long – especially for Economics. I do realize that some of the items are repeated in some of the surveys. This is used to control for ordering effects. The sections on the ethics of publishing and sabbaticals are provided as separate links as the surveys can be overwhelming doing them all together. In the section on journal rankings there are also questions about the outcomes of publishing and why individuals publish which came out of a meeting of editors at the Academy of Management conference 3 years ago. I myself am editor of 5 journals and on the editorial review boards of over 20 other journals and yet there are many of the journals that I have never heard of. Please take some time to rate the journals with which you are familiar. This is not only going out over AOM listservs [apologies for cross postings] but also for listservs for other business disciplines as well and the data it to go to both the AACSB and EQUIS. At the request of previous respondents you don't have to complete the entire survey in one sitting but can go back to any section from the same computer in order to continue the survey. Last year when this was sent to only AOM reviewers we had over 4000 responses but the AOM staff requested that we make it available to all 19,000 + AOM members via the listservs.
Please read the following statement carefully. There will be no consequences either positive or negative if you decide not to participate in the study. There is minimal risk involved in responding to the items in this survey. Responses are totally anonymous. Your individual responses will be accessed only by the researchers. Furthermore, the responses will only be viewed when compiled with the responses of all participants in the study. You may stop answering questions at any time during the survey.
I certify that I am 18 or older and my participation in this survey is entirely voluntary. I will cooperate freely in this research project and release any claim to the collected data, research results, publication of or commercial use of such information or products resulting from the collected information.
You can give your informed consent to participate in the study by clicking on the link to surveymonkey and completing the survey
Management Entrepreneurship, & International Business
Marketing, Real Estate, Tourism, & Transportation
Accounting
Finance
Business Communication
Business and Tax Law
Management Information & Decision Sciences
Economics
Publication Ethics Survey [for individuals from all disciplines]
Sabbaticals [for individuals from all disciplines even if you haven't done a sabbatical]