EDITORIAL
In the constant search for the improvement of its editorial processes and for the improvement of the quality of the articles it publishes, with the aim of contributing to the academic community of Business Administration, RAE has developed several studies on its fifty-year-old collection. The latest of them, available in its entirety, is about the half-life of articles published in the journal between 1997 and 2002.
The half-life of an article is related to the time elapsed for it to receive half of all citations it should have throughout its existence. Of course, it is a concept based on an estimate because, in theory, an article may continue to receive citations indefinitely. In practice, however, most articles start receiving quotes from the year of its publication (year zero) and, if an article is really relevant, the community will recognize it as such, gradually increasing the number of citations until it reaches a peak in a given year, after which this number starts to decline, year after year, until it starts being mentioned only episodically.
Since the criteria for assessment of the relevance of researchers and journals are constructed based on the so-called "impact", i.e. their ability to be cited by others, understanding the concept of half-life of articles is essential, particularly because, today, one of the most important measures of this relevance is associated with the concept of the "impact factor", especially that calculated by a company that keeps in its basis some of the journals acknowledged as references among the various areas of knowledge.
Interestingly, the half-life of articles in the fields of Social Sciences is significantly higher than those of the areas known as the hard sciences. Physics, Engineering and biological fields have, in general, a half-life under five years. The fields of Social Sciences, in turn, have a half-life over eight years. This means that items from fields that have longer half-lives only become "mature" and reach their peak in citations later. Nevertheless, the calculation of the impact factor of all fields, hard or soft sciences, is based on the same "window of time". The result is that the hard fields have an invariably higher impact factor than the soft areas. This means that, regardless of their importance, the calculation method favors them.
The calculation of the half-life of RAE articles shows the profile of the field in which it is inserted, as it was 8.25 years on average for the period analyzed. Therefore, only the half-life for articles published until 2002 was calculated, as the latest articles had not yet reached their "maturity" in terms of citations.
This scenario, however, may be changing. Another index is the percentage of articles cited in the year of their publication, which indicates the speed at which articles are incorporated by other researchers in their work. Of the 45 articles published by RAE in 2012, 18% were cited in the same year. To make a comparison, in 2002 only 8% of the published articles were cited in the same year. There are three phenomena that may help explain this change: first, it was the adoption of open, immediate access to the content of the articles published by RAE - a policy adopted since 2004; second, the policy of many journals, including RAE, to demand that articles include recent references (usually the last five years) in their literature review. The pressure for publication to which authors have been submitted may also be contributing to this change, leading to constant update in an increasingly competitive academic environment.
In the future, we can assess the impact of these changes in the calculation of the half-life of RAE articles. We intend to reassess these calculations in the future to allow researchers to do further studies on the effect of scientific policies on the conduct of researchers and their results in the impact of journals. We will then be able to know if the half-life of articles in the field of Social Sciences will become more comparable to other academic areas with more tradition in scientific metrics.
In this issue of RAE, we published six original articles. "Representações do trabalho: estudo sobre confinamento na indústria petrolífera" is an exploratory study on the influence of the confined labor system in representations of the organizational context and social behaviors inside and outside the workplace. "Ajustamento intercultural de executivos japoneses expatriados no Brasil: um estudo empírico" verifies the intercultural adjustment of executives from Japan, through qualitative research with 37 professionals in 21 companies from various segments in Brazil. "Paradoxo de inovação no cluster do vinho: o caso da região demarcada do Douro" investigates the issue of innovation within the scope of the cluster of a traditional European wine region, characterized by the so-called terroir system. "Legitimidade, governança corporativa e desempenho: análise das empresas da BM&F BOVESPA" evaluates how the legitimacy, especially through the membership of the Novo Mercado, conditions the value of companies listed in the Bovespa. "Percepción sobre el desarrollo sostenible de las MYPE en el Perú" presents a perception survey of undergraduate students in relation to social responsibility activities implemented by micro and small businesses in Peru. "Análisis del credit scoring" addresses the predictive power of three credit scoring models, two of which are parametric, and one is not.
This issue is completed with the essay "The five information technology blind spots of economists", signed by Professor Eric van Heck of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam; a review by Professor Isleide Fontenelle on the book "Rituais de sofrimento"; and book recommendations on organizational routines and disasters and humanitarian logistics.
Good reading!
Eduardo Diniz
Editor in chief
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
01 Mar 2013 -
Date of issue
Feb 2013
