JOURNAL REPUTATION AND JOURNAL ARTICLE QUALITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHERS AT A SWEDISH UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Aim: Starting from some follow-up research questions such as for instance how authors determine the scholarly ‘quality’ of their own and others’ outputs, and whether they include bibliometric indicators in that assessment, this qualitative study is aimed at a modest ambition: to seek the reasons behind educational researchers’ decision to publish their texts in certain journals, and how they, as educational researchers, judge the quality of a journal article. Theory: Since research work and knowledge acquisition are not purely carried out individually, Social Epistemology theory developed by Alvin Goldman is used as a framework of this study to examine educational researchers’ knowledge about the quality of research. Method: Time constraints led me to use a combination of purposive and convenience sampling to get participants as quickly as possible. Individual semi-structured interviews are carried out in two different ways: actual face-to-face and online face-to-face due to unexpected circumstances. Four educational researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, are interviewed. Data is then analysed using a thematic analysis of responses. Results: The findings show firstly that even if researchers publish under pressure from University demands, they can still act selflessly, for example by seeking publication in a struggling journal they wish to support. Secondly, predatory journals are quite worrisome for most educational researchers in terms of research quality. Thirdly, originality and research contribution are expexted from a research. And lastly, the study also finds that research articles that interest many readers are judged to be a good quality journal article by respondents.