Journal Categorization

[Phillip Ein-Dor <eindor@post.tau.ac.il>]

Hi John, 
With about 100 journals on the ISWorld list, it does make sense 
to try to introduce some form of categorization to help authors 
focus their search for appropriate outlets. I also agree that it 
is probably best to let the journals categorize themselves - that 
way the categories should fit the editorial policy (at least the 
editor's ideal, which may be somewhat different from what actually 
gets published). In addition, it might be useful both to authors and 
editors if there were some mechanism by which people in the field 
could express their perceptions of journals' positionings. 

In looking over MISQ's classification scheme, I don't think it quite 
fits; MISQ is a research journal and the classification scheme is 
oriented to fitting keywords to IS research - that might serve as a 
basis for journal self-categorization at the lowest level, but I think 
a few higher level categories are necessary. Some examples might be 

research 
opinion 
practice 
tutorials 
surveys 
... 

Within those categories, it might be useful to distinguish between 
journals that are focussed on a particular field versus those that 
are eclectic. The focussed journals could then specify their particular 
fields of interest, including those in the MISQ list. But I think that 
it would still be necessary to expand the  MISQ list; I don't think that 
list is very helpful for categorizing journals specializing, say, in 
global issues, e-whatever,  or DSS. 

As a first shot, I would classify JAIS as currently research, eclectic (that 
allows me not to delve any deeper and indeed reflects my editorial approach). 
It should be noted too that a journal's policy may well change when editor's 
change so the categories might need to be updated. 

I think that if you can come up with an inclusive categorization, it might 
be a great help to authors. 

Good luck! 

Phillip 


_______________________________________________________ 
 Phillip Ein-Dor 
 Editor, Journal of AIS (http://jais.aisnet.org) 
 Professor and Chair of New Economy Information Systems 
 Faculty of Management 
 Tel-Aviv University 
 Tel-Aviv 69978 
 ISRAEL 
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 phone:  +972-3-6406343         fax: +972-3-6407741 
 e-mail: mailto:eindor@post.tau.ac.il 
 URL:    http://www.tau.ac.il/~eindor/eindorp.html 
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