Who is the ”Platz-Hirsch“ of the German Economics Profession?

Abstract

SummaryIn this paper, we investigate the informational content of citation-based research evaluations. To illustrate our analysis we refer to the 2005 Handelsblatt ranking of German academic economists. We make extensive use of the recently developed Hirsch-index and relate citation incidence to publication success, career age, and the topicality of the individual researchers’ field of specialization. We arrive at the conclusion that citation-based indicators provide a very incomplete picture of research performance. To obtain acceptable bibliometric research evaluations, citation based indicators need to be complemented with indicators that measure publication success more directly.

Citation Success: Evidence from Economic History Journal Publications

“…3 The field of economics, on the other hand, offers a few examples of such attempts. These include Laband (1990), Johnson (1997), Laband and Tollison (2000), Hilmer and Lusk (2009) and Ursprung and Zimmer (2007). Whaples (2002) offers an analysis similar to the present study, but he limits his research to articles published in the Journal of Economic History.…”

“…positive effects of academic tenure on citations in economics have been noted by, e.g., Bodenhorn (2003) and Ursprung and Zimmer (2007). But why do full professors obtain more citations?…”

Publications: German economic research institutes on track

“…In general, these studies use a citation based approach for ranking research output. An important recent study was provided by Ursprung and Zimmer (2007), who have evaluated the research output of the 27 best German economists.…”

Age and complementarity in scientific collaboration

“…Co-authorship reduces publication uncertainty through diversification(Barnett et al 1988) and leads to a higher quality of articles as measured by acceptance rates or citations(Laband 1987;Ursprung and Zimmer 2007).…”