Is This Top Tier? Journal Prestige in the Field of Higher Education

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division J Poster Session: Faculty, Curriculum, and Teaching 2

Abstract

The number of higher education journals has increased dramatically during the last three decades. Not surprisingly, many stakeholders have strong opinions about the prestige of various journals. They use terms such as "first, second, or third tier" to describe journals. While faculty often use indicators such as impact factors, acceptance rates, etc as proxies for journal quality prestige, we do not have a real understanding of the subjective opinions of various journals in the field. Lack of information about perceptions of higher education journals could influence faculty work and success in academic careers. In this paper, we describe the results of a study in which we surveyed higher education faculty about their perceptions of key journal in the field.

Authors

• Nathaniel J. Bray, The University of Alabama

• Claire C. Major, The University of Alabama