nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2008‒09‒13
four papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

  1. What determines the academic and professional participation of economists? By Mishra, SK
  2. The Invariant Method is Manipulable By Kóczy László Á.; Strobel Martin
  3. A Publication Activity Model for Finnish Universities By Tarmo Räty; Bondas; Micke
  4. Can We Test for Bias in Scientific Peer-Review? By Oswald, Andrew J.

  1. By: Mishra, SK
    Abstract: The IDEAS publishes every month the rankings of economists (and departments of economics including research institutions working in the related areas) in different countries. These rankings are based on a large number of measures. It is observed that economists of some countries participate more vigorously in academic and professional activities. This paper investigates into the factors responsible for variations in participation of economists of different countries in academic and professional activities reflected in their intellectual output.
    Keywords: Economist; participation; rankings; IDEAS; RePEc; intellectual output; human development; less developed countries; journal articles; working papers; SSRN
    JEL: A11 A14
    Date: 2008–09–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10338&r=sog
  2. By: Kóczy László Á.; Strobel Martin (METEOR)
    Abstract: We show that the invariant method (Pinski and Narin, 1976), recently axiomatised by Palacios-Huerta and Volij (2004), and used to quality-rank academic journals is subject to manipulation: a journal can boost its performance by making additional citations to other journals.
    Keywords: Economics (Jel: A)
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2008029&r=sog
  3. By: Tarmo Räty; Bondas; Micke
    Abstract: This paper presents a publication activity model that calculates a research aggregate for the study fields of Finnish universities. The aggregate is expressed in terms of full-time equivalent research years conditional to the actual number of publications in each publication category. The key problem of the model is estimating the effort coefficients for each field and category. We use a nonparametric estimator that combines information from the KOTA dataset on FTE research years, the number of publications, and responses to our questionnaire on research effort, which was targeted to all researchers in all Finnish universities. Given our results, it appears that a reliable quantitative valuation of research work cannot be based on international journal articles alone or on any common subset of categories for all the fields. Some of the fields are rather concentrated, with only one or two publication categories, but in the fields of the humanities and social sciences all the categories count. In the fields of law and education, the humanities, theology and social sciences, national categories are also important. The resulting research aggregate is useful as a measure of research output in total productivity calculations.
    Keywords: Publication activity, Research effort, Publication categories, Universities
    Date: 2008–09–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:448&r=sog
  4. By: Oswald, Andrew J. (University of Warwick)
    Abstract: Science rests upon the reliability of peer review. This paper suggests a way to test for bias. It is able to avoid the fallacy – one seen in the popular press and the research literature – that to measure discrimination it is sufficient to study averages within two populations. The paper’s contribution is primarily methodological, but I apply it, as an illustration, to data from the field of economics. No scientific bias or favoritism is found (although the Journal of Political Economy discriminates against its own Chicago authors). The test’s methodology is applicable in most scholarly disciplines.
    Keywords: discrimination, citations, science, peer-review system
    JEL: H8
    Date: 2008–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3665&r=sog

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