Evaluating Scholarly Influence Through Social Network Analysis: the Next Step in Evaluating Scholarly Influence

Abstract

Following previous research findings, this paper argues that the current method of evaluating scholar performance, publication counts in “quality” journals is flawed by subjectivity in generating the list of approved journals and the definition of quality. Truex, Cuellar and Takeda (2009) sought to improve on this method by substituting the measurement of “influence” using the Hirsch statistics to measure ideational influence. Since the h-family statistics are a measure of productivity and the uptake of a scholar’s ideas this methodology privileges the uptake of a scholar’s ideas over the venue of publication. But influence is built through other means than by having one’s papers read and cited. This paper argues that interaction between scholars resulting in co-authored papers is another way to build academic influence. This academic influence, which we term social influence, can be assessed by Social Network Analysis (SNA) metrics which examine the nature and strength of coauthoring networks among IS Scholars. The paper demonstrates the method of assessing social influence by analysis of the social network of AMCIS scholars and compares the results of this analysis with other co-authorship networks from the ECIS and ICIS community.

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