Scholarly journals as producers of knowledge: Theory and empirical evidence based on data envelopment analysis

There have been numerous studies that rank journals based on relative quality. These have generally failed to address some important theoretical and empirical issues relating to productivity. As an alternative, the authors outline a theoretical framework in which an academic journal is considered to be a "producer" of intellectual output. Using the field of management as an example, the authors specify the inputs and outputs of the production process and estimate the relative efficiency of journals using Data Envelopment Analysis. The derived measures of relative productivity are then used to develop a productivity ranking of journals. To explain why some journals use inputs more efficiently than others, the authors regress the estimates of relative efficiency on a set of managerial factors and suggest means to increase relative efficiency. The authors find that increasing the size of the editorial board and reducing both the subscription price and the acceptance rate will enhance the relative performance of an academic journal.