JUDGING THE QUALITY OF RESEARCH IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS - THE UK AS A CASE-STUDY

This article examines how the research quality of management departments and business schools may be assessed. We define the most influential business and management studies journals by their 10-year citation impact. Most of these journals are based in the US. We examine the extent to which UK business schools publish in the most cited journals, and find a surprisingly small presence, even from those business schools classified as 'internationally excellent' by the most recent government-sponsored Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Comparisons are made with US business schools. We then show that British academics publish mainly in British-based journals. Reasons for this situation and reactions to it are discussed.