Journal Rankings: positioning the field of educational research and educational academics

Abstract

This article explores the way in which journal ranking processes in education impact upon the field of education and educational researchers. The article draws upon the recent moves to rank order journals in academic disciplines/domains of research in Australia through the introduction of the ERA - Excellence in Research for Australia - as a means of evaluating academic work. Drawing upon an analysis of the specific ordering of 'leading' journals in education according to the ERA and the national locations of journal editors, the article focuses on how these processes of 'academic accountancy' have implications for the field of educational research, as well as for individual academics measured and monitored through this process. The research demonstrates how already privileged Anglo-US research and research outlets continue to be consecrated and legitimated at the expense of more local and alternative programs and outlets. The article suggests that the push to manage and measure research productivity, taken up in policy within and across specific nation states (in this case, Australia), ignores the breadth of existing research within the field of educational research and potentially narrows the nature of the research undertaken by individual academics and reduces the potential publication outlets, thereby contributing to the recalibration and repositioning of academic work.