Journal List and Policy

Journal List Policy

In accordance with the expectations of AACSB, the College of Business (College) conducted a review and update of existing journal lists in AY 2025-2026. The main goal of this revision process was to maintain​ groupings into quality tiers based on external data/metrics that were relatively consistent across departments, but also to update thresholds based on changes to journal metrics. An array of metrics were used (e.g., Financial Times 50 List, ABS, ABDC, JIF, SJR, acceptance rates) as a guiding resource to update department lists.

While metrics provide external data on quality, it is up to the College to determine how to use this data to develop lists and how the resulting lists are used in College Tenure & Promotion and Annual Performance Review policies. This policy only pertains to academic journals and does not apply to other publications such as books and monographs. In order to more accurately capture the variability in quality that exists in each discipline’s higher quality journals, the College uses a four-tier system.

The four tiers are organized as follows: Elite Journals – a small group of the best business journals; Top Journals – the next group of journals that hold quality ratings just below the Elite category; High Quality Journals – a group of journals that do not have quality ratings equal to Elite or Top, but that are widely considered to have a quality rating higher than most peer-reviewed outlets; and Acceptable Journals (all other blind peer-reviewed journals). The College shares its list of Elite, Top, and High Quality level journals publicly but will not maintain a comprehensive list of journals that qualify for Acceptable status. Lists of Acceptable Journals are maintained by the department chairs. It should be noted that the College still acknowledges and credits peer-reviewed research in Acceptable Journals. The Elite, Top, and High Quality tiers are based on external data applied relatively consistently across departments.

We also maintain a list of Unacceptable Journals. This includes journals that have been shown by third party assessments as journals that should not be recognized as outlets for publishing scholarly research. If a journal is not currently listed as an acceptable, peer reviewed journal in Cabell’s Directory, then evidence of the acceptability of the journal must be provided to the Department Chair in order for the journal to qualify for the Acceptable Level.

Use of Journal Lists in Evaluating Publications

While the journal lists are divided by discipline to create an obvious link between faculty members’ discipline and their publications, this should not be interpreted as a restriction in the journal outlets a faculty member can target for publication. The College supports and encourages cross-disciplinary research by acknowledging and counting research published in peer-reviewed outlets that appear on any of the College department journal lists – not just the list from the faculty member’s discipline.

This also means that the quality ranking of journals should not be over-applied to the evaluation of particular pieces of research, and should not be used as a substitute for evaluating each article on its own merits and in the context of the entire research agenda of a faculty member and its trajectory over time.

Similarly, faculty may target journals that are not on any of the College journal lists. Ultimately the link between a publication and a faculty member’s discipline is related to the topic of the publication as opposed to the journal in which it appears. In such cases, it may not make sense to add the journal itself to the journal list (see section below on adding journals) if the journal is not closely related to any business disciplines. In the event of such a publication, the appropriate quality level still needs to be determined. The faculty member should include information describing how the research is related to their discipline and demonstrate that the proposed outlet is peer-reviewed. If the journal outlet has sufficient quality ratings across an array of metrics to warrant a quality rating at the Elite, Top or High Quality level, the faculty member will earn credit for a publication in one of these quality tiers. If not, then the faculty member should provide data on other rankings or data that could be used to determine the journal quality. The department/school will make a determination of the quality level for the journal and submit that to the Executive Team for final approval to maintain consistency across departments. If possible, it is best to obtain such an approval prior to the submission of the article for publication. If approved as an outlet, the faculty member should include a copy of the approval letter with the quality determination in Annual Performance Evaluation and Tenure and Promotion materials. If requested by the faculty member, department chair or the Executive Team, the ICCIT may pr vide recommendations on such determination of quality level.

Journal List Maintenance

The College will review the journal lists every four years using updated on an array of metrics (e.g., Financial Times 50 List, ABS, ABDC, JIF, SJR, acceptance rates). The next review is scheduled for the 2029-2030 academic year. Changes to the journal list will also be considered on an ongoing basis using the following process:

• For additions of a journal to the Acceptable list, a faculty member may request consideration at any time by submitting the form attached at Appendix A to their Department Chair.
• To propose changes to journals in the Elite, Top or High Quality categories of the journal list, a faculty member will follow the process noted in Appendix B and submit a request to the department/school Chair and using a Journal List Change – Request Form (see Appendix C for an outline of what such a form should include) by the end of 4th week of the Fall or Spring term.
• The department/school Chair will review these requests, and forward those that it supports to the ICCIT Chair by the end of the 6th week of the Fall or Spring term.
• The ICCIT will review the requests as follows:
  • Verify that any journals being added to the list are blind and peer-reviewed.
  • Use the criteria outlined below to recommend a placement level for the new journal or respond to a request for changing the placement level for a journal already on the list.
  • Deliver a report to the Executive team by the end of the 12th week of the term including the recommended changes to the journal list along with its analysis supporting those changes and a list of changes that it does not recommend along with its analysis supporting that recommendation.
• Using the recommendations from the ICCIT along with the data originally submitted, the Executive Team will make final approval decisions by the end of the term and communicate those decisions to the entire faculty.
• The process is outlined in the Appendix below.

Adding a Journal to the Elite, Top or High Quality Lists

If a faculty member identifies a peer-reviewed outlet not on one of the College’s journal lists at the Elite, Top or High Quality levels, she or he can submit a memorandum (see Appendix C for requirements) asking for approval of the outlet (see process in Journal List Maintenance section). If there is data for the journal outlet on an array of metrics (e.g., Financial Times 50 List, ABS, ABDC, JIF, SJR, acceptance rates) sufficient to warrant a quality rating at the Elite, Top or High Quality level, the journal will be added to the journal list in the appropriate quality tier.

The array of metrics mentioned previously is certainly not the only resource for journal lists. Other organizations, trade associations, and universities also produce journal lists. In such cases, the faculty member should provide data on other rankings or data that could be used to determine the journal quality. If the faculty member uses journal lists from other universities, they need to submit a representative sampling of multiple journal lists from other schools.

Justifying a Request to Move a Journal on the List

The array of metrics mentioned previously is certainly not the only resource for journal lists. Other organizations, trade associations, and universities also produce journal lists. If a faculty member believes a journal outlet is under-rated by the College and should be in a higher quality tier, an appeal can be submitted (see process in Journal List Maintenance section). If a faculty member submits an appeal, he or she needs to include other sources of data clearly indicating that the journal deserves a higher quality rating (see the Appendix below for the items to include). If the faculty member uses journal lists from other universities, he or she needs to submit a representative sampling of multiple journal lists from other schools.

Hold Harmless Policy

If a journal outlet changes tiers over time, the College will use a “Hold Harmless” policy for purposes of Tenure and Promotion. If the journal was in a higher tier at the time of publication than it is during the T&P review, the publication will be credited with the quality tier the journal held at the time of publication. If a journal outlet increases in quality from the time of publication, the faculty member will earn consideration for achieving a publication in a higher quality tier. The only exception to this policy would be in the case of a journal being added to the unacceptable list.