Author Affiliation Index (AAI); the pattern of authorship/coauthorship across journals

Although this recent study by Chen en Huan (Journal of Corporate Finance 2007) is focused on the field of Finance, the concept of AAI is valuable for all fields of management research. The AAI is calculated as the ratio of articles authored by faculty at the world’s top 80 finance programs divided by the total number of articles by all authors. It provides provides academics with a credible alternative measurement of journal quality, in ddition to the traditional survey-based and citation-based journal ratings.

Abstract:

In this paper we use a new method to rank finance journals and study the pattern of authorship/coauthorship
across journals. Defined as the ratio of articles authored by faculty at the world’s top 80 finance
programs to the total number of articles by all authors, the Author Affiliation Index is a cost-effective and
intuitively easy-to-understand approach to journal rankings. Forty-one finance journals are ranked
according to this index. If properly constructed, the Author Affiliation Index provides an easy and credible
way to supplement the existing journal ranking methods. Our ranking system reveals the journal–researcher
clientele, and we find that collaboration (co-authoring) between faculty within elite programs exists only in
top-tier and near-top-tier journals. Publications in lower-tier journals by researchers of elite programs are
driven by their co-authors. Collaboration between faculty in elite and non-elite programs, however, is more
prevalent than that within elite programs across all tiers of journals. Co-authorship among top 80 programs,
nevertheless, is more common in top-tier journals, while co-authorship between top 80 and other programs
is more dominant in lower-ranked journals.