Researching the Published Work

of Business Schools

Inside a proactive library service of the

Sainsbury Library

Research Rankings

• Saïd Business School ranked 27th in 2011, or 21st over three years.

• Research ranking significantly lower, at 51st.

• What does this say about the impact of research in the School?

• What does this say about the accuracy of the FT research rankings?

ft.com (2011) ‘businesseducation: Global MBA rankings 2011’ in ft.com.

Viewed 8th July, 2011, from

<http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings-2011>

FT45 Database

• Date, Journal, Title, Author, Intra-organisational

affiliation, Organisational affiliation.

• Only authors affiliated with a teaching institution.

• Only ‘research articles’, i.e. not ‘research

briefs’, discussion or editorial material.

• Roughly 30 seconds per entry

Reviewing the FT45 Database

• No requests for the FT45 database for a year.

• Various problems were noticed with the database:

•Inaccuracies

•Inconsistencies

Project Initiation Documents

• Promote FT45 database, disseminate potentially useful information, and draw attention to other proactive services, by publishing a webpage and advertising this to the research community.

• Review the FT45 database for a decision on whether or not it should be continued by the next Graduate Trainee, in the form of two reports by the Graduate Trainee and Circulation Officer.

• Develop skills of the Graduate Trainee.

• Strengthen Circulation Officer’s position in the School’s research network.

Project Initiation Documents

• Success to be measured

primarily by feedback

from researchers

(positive or negative).

• Webpage to be finished

before end of July, and

decision to be made

before start of

September.

• No time for other trainee

projects.

Risks and Contingencies

• With an accuracy of 66%, the database required

4000 more entries than expected to complete.

• Focus shifted from an uploaded ‘written report’, to

one of many ‘services provided’.

• The Graduate Trainee is now leaving a month

before schedule.

• Further projects intended for the Graduate Trainee

have been given to others.

Trainee Appraisal

• Input data from publication schedule

• More detailed glossary of institutions

• December-November published annual reviews

• Inclusive of all authors and articles, extra fields

for analysing affiliation

• The trade-off! Time vs. quality

FT45 Database Webpage

• ‘Tasters’ from the

database as it is

• Saïd Business School

profile

• Outline of further potential

in the database

• Explanation of various

impact ratings influencing

School research

• Advert for other proactive

services offeredMcCandless, David (2009) ‘Information is beautiful : ideas, issues,

knowledge, data – visualized!’, Information is Beautiful. Accessed

on 8th July, 2011, from <http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/>

Final Thoughts

• Think big, think positive!

• Many irons in the fire

• Audit society... Networking… is it really so bad?!

• Better to have tried and failed

• Questions?