Download Issues of Journal Quality and Knowledge Use

Editorial
From the Editor
JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY
Zinkhan
10.1177/0092070304267963
/OF
EDITORIAL
MARKETING SCIENCE
FALL 2004
Accessing Academic Research
Through an E-Database:
Issues of Journal Quality
and Knowledge Use
George M. Zinkhan
University of Georgia
One purpose of an academic journal is to generate useful knowledge. In this sense, the past issues of JAMS represent an archive of marketing knowledge. In the twentyfirst century, there are many ways for potential users to
search through the JAMS archives. One way is through the
Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Web page
(www.ams-web.org/). Here, AMS members can use the
Ingenta system to download seven volumes of JAMS (i.e.,
representing the articles published from 1998 through
2004). At the most recent AMS conference in Vancouver,
Canada, Eric Moran (2004) presented some statistics
about Ingenta downloads. For instance, he identified the
10 articles most likely to be downloaded by users (see
Table 1). As shown in that listing, the most popular article
(between April 2002 and April 2004) is a meta-analysis
study of customer satisfaction (by Szymanski and
Henard), and that article generated a total of 260
downloads, as tabulated by Ingenta.
As shown in the table, many of the frequent downloads are in relation to articles that concern applications of emerging technologies. Other popular topics
in Table 1 include customer value, services marketing, and satisfaction/loyalty. It is also interesting to note
that the eighth most popular article (with 210 downloads)
is the Burnham et al. article on switching costs. This study
was also selected by the Editorial Review Board as the
“best article” published in Volume 31. In this instance, two
different measures of journal quality converge. That is,
both readers and review board members find this article on
switching costs to be an outstanding piece of research.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Volume 32, No. 4, pages 369-370.
DOI: 10.1177/0092070304267963
Copyright © 2004 by Academy of Marketing Science.
Of course, it is important to note the limitations associated with using Table 1 as an indicator of journal quality.
First, the current system on the AMS Web site is not necessarily able to account for all the downloading activities
associated with JAMS articles. It does, however, provide
an interesting snapshot of current trends (Moran 2004).
Second, there are many possible indicators of journal
quality, including (a) the status of review board members,
(b) the status of the publisher, (c) the status of the editor,
(d) the content of published articles, (e) the rigors of the
review process, (f) the perceptions of readers, (g) the perceptions of professors and administrators, (h) citation
counts, and (i) many others (Zinkhan 1991). Third, number of downloads is a crude indicator, as it may have more
to do with the promotion value of the title than it has to do
with the inherent quality of the article. In contrast, the voting results from the Review Board members presumably
represent a more considered and more thorough indicator
of quality. Once again, it is interesting that in this case,
there is some convergence between the two methods (i.e.,
the eighth article in Table 1 also being voted as best article
by the Review Board as a whole).
It may be important to distinguish between quantitative
and qualitative measures of journal quality (Zinkhan and
Leigh 1999). As implied above, the quality of published
articles is a key underlying factor. But, how should such
quality be judged (and by whom)? Certainly, individual
scholars can read articles and make (qualitative) judgments about their worth and similar judgments about the
worth (or quality) of the journal that publishes those
articles.
In the twenty-first-century academic environment,
many universities are relying on citation counts to indicate
the quality of published work. One appeal of this approach
for administrators is that citation counts are quantitative
370
JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE
FALL 2004
TABLE 1
Most Downloaded Articles From Ingenta:
April 2002 to April 2004
1. “Customer Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical
Evidence”
D. M. Szymanski and D. H. Henard
Volume 29, Number 1, pages 16-35
260 downloads
2. “Exploring the Implications of M-Commerce for Markets and
Marketing”
S. Balasubramanian, R. A. Peterson, and S. L. Jarvenpaa
Volume 30, Number 4, pages 348-361
255 downloads
3. “Marketing to and Serving Customers Through the Internet:
An Overview and Research Agenda”
A. Parasuraman and G. M. Zinkhan
Volume 30, Number 4, pages 286-295
245 downloads
4. “Service Quality Delivery Through Web Sites: A Critical Review
of Extant Knowledge”
V. A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and A Malhotra
Volume 30, Number 4, pages 362-375
233 downloads
5. “Intelligence Generation and Superior Customer Value”
S. F. Slater and J. C. Narver
Volume 28, Number 1, pages 120-127
233 downloads
and allow for rankings (e.g., of journals, scholars, departments). Of course, there are potential problems with the
citation approach, as there can be many reasons for an article to be cited, and some of these reasons could reflect negatively on the published work. Nonetheless, a citation is an
indicator that a published article is not being “lost” or
“overlooked” and that it is having some impact on the field
and the work of future authors.
The download figures discussed here provide another
quantitative measure of knowledge use. Like other quantitative approaches, this indicator is not without its limitations (see discussion above). Nonetheless, we are likely to
6. “Marketing Strategy and the Internet: An Organizing Framework”
P. R. Varadarajan and M. S. Yadav
Volume 30, Number 4, pages 296-312
228 downloads
7. “Effects of Loyalty Programs on Value Perception, Program
Loyalty, and Brand Loyalty”
Y. Yi and H. Jeon
Volume 31, Number 3, pages 229-240
211 downloads
8. “Consumer Switching Costs: A Typology, Antecedents, and
Consequences”
T. A. Burnham, J. K. Frels, and V. Mahajan
Volume 31, Number 2, pages 109-126
210 downloads
9. “Service Failure and Recovery: The Impact of Relationship
Factors on Customer Satisfaction”
R. L. Hess Jr., S. Ganesan, and N. M. Llein
Volume 31, Number 2, pages 127-145.
200 downloads
10. “Technology and the Customer Interface: What Consumers Want
in the Physical and Virtual Store”
R. R. Burke
Volume 30, Number 4, pages 411-432
196 downloads
see more and more such analyses, as electronic databases
become widely available and stakeholders of all sorts
search for indicators of journal quality and knowledge use.
REFERENCES
Moran, Eric. 2004. “Publisher’s Report 2004.” Paper presented at the
conference of the Academy of Marketing Science, May 26-29, Vancouver, Canada.
Zinkhan, George M. 1991. “Quality Contributions to Advertising.” Journal of Advertising 20 (1): 3.
 and Thomas Leigh. 1999. “Assessing the Quality Ranking of the
Journal of Advertising.” Journal of Advertising 28 (Summer): 51-70.