Mapping the Structure of Research: Business and Management as an Exemplar

Rating systems for journals often overlook the important issue of fit between journal and article. Strong fit is needed to obtain the most constructive review process which is critical to the eventual impact of the article. The relationship between journals is also important for decisions regarding the addition and cancellation of subscriptions from a collection of serials. We use a Kohonen self-organizing map as a visualization tool applied to business management literature to assess about 40,000 abstracts for 202 management journals listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index, the Science Citation Index, and the Financial Times list of business journals. We obtain a map which places journals with similar content very close together and journals with very different content far apart. This paper offers a method to consider how journals relate to each other and which journals are most and least likely to offer a fit with different types of research in the business management field. Serials Review 2009; 35:218-227. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.