An Empirical Assessment of Health Care Management Journals: A Business Perspective

The study assesses the perceived quality and relevance of health care management journals by surveying university faculty with both a health care and business orientation. The results identify a concise list of 33 health care management journals as approprite outlets for business-oriented health care research. Relative rankings and tierings of the journals are provided that are consistent with traditional journal evaluation methods used in the primary business disciplines. Results demonstrate a high correlation between the quality rankings of the journals that are common to the current study and the prior study of Brooks, Walker, and Szorady (1991). However, substantial changes in the relative rankings of some individual journals have occurred. The research also analyzes the effect of tenure, rank, and administrative responsibility on journal evaluation and finds no significant differences among the ratings based on these respondent characteristics. Finally, findings regarding the relationship between the quality and relevance rankings raise new questions as to how journal quality should be defined.