Marianne,

It is sad that your dean and chair are so blinkered that they are not aware of the many disciplines in a university in which books count for more than articles (especially, but not exclusively in the humanities) and the moderate number in which top conference presentations count as much or more than journal articles (especially in some areas of engineering, computer science, and physics).  Equally, it is bizarre that, being aware of pay-to-publish books, they don't recognize the proliferation of the same phenomenon among exploitative journals.  Nothing but vigilance and good sense lets us sort out either journals or books.

Having written many promotion letters as a chair for colleagues with books and having served on university-wide promotion and tenure committees at two universities, I have seen up close how books can be addressed satisfactorily.  The normal considerations are similar to journals.  Are the publishers themselves reputable?  How extensive is their review processes?  Typically, books from the most famous and long-established university presses count for more -- e.g., Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Chicago. . .   Long-established academic publishers (e.g., Routledge) are taken seriously, though perhaps with a more skeptical eye, and commercial academic sharks (e.g., Elsevier or Springer) somewhat less seriously.  And there are even lower level publishers for which commercial considerations matter more than academic quality.  Book reviews in serious journals, if they do not just summarize the content, but access the quality, are often offered as evidence that transcends the reputation of the publisher.  Publishers generally share the assessments of outside reviewers with authors, and these can be offered as evidence of quality to university administrators.  Citations to books are available in Google Scholar, just as they are for journals.  Naturally, citations to all types of publications develop only with a lag.  In cases such as tenure or promotion decisions where outside letters are required, the opinions of the outside evaluators also matter.  Typically, textbooks are not taken as seriously as monographs.  Personally, I regard that as a mistake, because in the long-run textbooks may well be more influential, but it is a fact.  And, of course, in the end, the considered views of one's colleagues, who have read and assessed the work, matters.  It is sad that this last point is for administrators too often the least.  They would rather ignore the content and serious assessments of the actual work in favor of outside indicators that may or may not correlate to the value of the work.  One gets enormous credit for a paper published in the AER, even if it never is cited; and, sadly, less for a paper in a more obscure journal that is cited widely.  The same can be true, for example, between publishing a book with Princeton vs. some no-name publisher.  But that's life.

Kevin Hoover



On 5/18/2023 12:20 PM, Marianne Johnson wrote:
[log in to unmask]">
Hello SHOE list,

This may be a familiar problem for those of you who work in business schools -- so your advice would be much appreciated. 

My institution is AACSB accredited, and for decades, we have never recognized academic books as a "scholarly publication." Instead, they are classified as a "scholarly activity," equivalent to a conference presentation. 

I would like to change this policy. However, my chair and associate dean have asked how they can know if a book publication is 'legitimate' given the flood of pay-to-publish offers we receive daily from digital 'publishers.' For journals, we use impact factors and Web of Science data. 

Suggestions and example/actual policies would be much appreciated. You can email me directly if you prefer at [log in to unmask]. 

best wishes,

Marianne

----------------------------

Marianne Johnson

Distinguished Professor of Economics

College of Business

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh


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KEVIN D. HOOVER
  Professor of Economics and Philosophy
  Duke University
  Editor, History of Political Economy 

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