The Hirsch Family of Bibliometric Indices as an Improved Measure of IS Academic Journal Impact

This study examines the use of journal rankings and proposes a new method of measuring IS journal impact based on the Hirsch family of indices (Hirsch 2005; Sidiropoulos et al. 2006). Journal rankings are a very important exercise in academia since they impact tenure and promotion decisions. Current methods employed to rank journal influence are shown to be subjective. We propose that the Hirsch Index (2005) and Contemporary Hirsch Index (Sidiropoulos et al. 2006) based on data from Publish or Perish be adopted as a more objective journal ranking method. To demonstrate the results of using this methodology, it is applied to the “pure MIS” journals ranked by Rainer and Miller (2005). The authors find substantial differences between the scholar rankings and those obtained using the Hirsch family of indices. They also find that the contemporary Hirsch Index allows researchers to identify journals that are rising or declining in influence.