Dear Dr. Serrano:

I wonder if we---or anyone---should participate in the practice of 
ranking journals.  Isn't it a corruption of the fair field of scholarship? 

Among it's many bad effects is to encourage people to rank another 
person not by reading and considering (a sample of) her work but by 
counting how many Grade A journals she has contributed to.  It takes 
scientific and scholarly judgment out of the hands of actual readers of 
the actual work and puts it into the hands of the median voter in a 
beauty contest.  It leads to mediocrity in science, such as the practice 
of using t tests as the sole criterion of importance in statistical 
studies.  The beauty contest is based on rumor, not reading.  When 
reputation rankings include a dummy journal with a plausible sounding 
name the respondents claim familiarity with the journal and firmly rank 
it.  Don't we need to stop this corrupt practice, not encourage it?

The advice not to use "the lists as the only basis for assessment of 
individual candidates" is disingenuous.  It's like the warning in liquor 
advertisements, "Drink Responsibly."  Friends don't let friends look at 
journal rankings.

Sincerely,

Deirdre McCloskey