Editorial: Comments on the 2021 journal rankings

Citation

Newell, G. (2023), "Editorial: Comments on the 2021 journal rankings", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPIF-02-2023-199

The rankings of the real estate journals have taken on increased importance in recent years; particularly as universities make increased use of these journal rankings in appointments, promotion and tenure. They cannot be ignored as you shape your real estate research career.

While a range of ranking schemes are available, the standard one across all disciplines is by Scimago (www.scimagojr.com). Journals within disciplines are assigned to quartiles each year based on their performance. So it is easy to do a quick profiling of the various real estate journals to see how they position across these quartiles (Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4) and potentially which journals you should target in your research career if they are a good fit for your research paper. Scimago also show how the quartile rankings have changed in recent years for each journal. Several real estate journals get assessed in different discipline areas.

The 2021 Scimago rankings have just been released (May 2022). They make interesting reading as there has been a general trend to increased quartile rankings for the real estate research journals in 2021. In particular, the Journal of Property Investment and Finance (JPIF) is Q1 in 2021; having increased from Q2 in 2020. This is an excellent result and reflects the quality of the papers in JPIF. This sees JPIF being in the top quartile of real estate journals; an impressive result.

Scimago also give additional journal ranking metrics such as the Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) values, where higher SJR values indicate greater journal prestige. The SJR value for JPIF has increased from 0.25 in 2015 to 0.51 in 2021; further reflecting the increased stature of JPIF in recent years. Other metrics given by Scimago for each journal include the number of citations, number of external citations, number of self-citations and percentage international collaboration.

In summary, Scimago provides a very useful mapping of the real estate journals you should consider in your research publication agenda. Importantly, JPIF is in Q1 in 2021, reflecting its stature among the real estate research journals and why JPIF should be part of your real estate research publications strategy.

I have published regularly in JPIF throughout my research career; it has been a key journal in my research agenda and research output.