Dear All,
Following on from my earlier notes, I will write about research journals in design that constitute good venues for publishing. Three frequent questions come up with respect to journals and articles. (1) The first is whether to publish only in journals that are listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge. (2) The second is whether it is best to publish only in journals identified with the design discipline, or whether it is good to publish in the journals of other fields. (3) A third question often comes up with respect to PhD students and whether they should publish before completing the PhD — or even be required to publish as a condition of completion.
(1) It is good to publish in journals indexed in the ISI Web of Knowledge — SCI, SSCI, AHCI. It is a mistake to focus exclusively on those journals. There are many excellent journals outside the ISI.
Publishing journal articles in journals listed in the Web of Knowledge offers advantages to your university. Articles indexed in the SCI and the SSCI contribute to university rankings in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also called the Shanghai Ranking. These articles make an author visible and attractive to one’s own university, and these articles make one visible and attractive as a job candidate. Nevertheless, there are good journals outside the ISI Web of Knowledge.
(2) There is no single answer to the second question. In my view, however, it is good to publish *both* in journals identified with the design discipline, *and* in the journals of other fields. Because design is necessarily interdisciplinary, articles in design research may be well suited to three kinds of journals. Design journals are the first kind — below, you will see a list of 45 excellent journals identified with the design disciplines. The second kind involves explicitly interdisciplinary journals. Broad science journals such as Nature or Science are one example. The design field also has such interdisciplinary journals as Design Issues or She Ji: the Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. Finally, the journals of other disciplines are often worth considering — different aspects of design research involve anthropology, ethnography, management, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, human-computer interaction, and more. In my view, publishing in the leading journals of such fields builds bridges across the boundaries of disciplines while demonstrating that your work has broad application with a level of research that is recognized widely.
(3) From time to time, I get questions from PhD students who inform me that their universities require them to publish in an ISI-ranked journal as a prior condition for completion of the PhD. It seems to me that several universities now have policies requiring PhD students to publish if they are to graduate. In my view, this is a mistake. As I see it, (3.1) PhD students *should not* be required to publish a research article in a peer-reviewed journal as a condition of completion. The proper requirement for awarding a PhD is completing a solid, serious PhD thesis. (3.2) It is good for a PhD student to publish research articles in peer-reviewed journal *if possible*. This is a good way to develop skills and make research known. (3.3) Under any circumstances, universities should not require PhD students to publish only in ISI indexed journals. This requirement has more to do with university prestige than with responsible doctoral education. In some cases, a fourth issue intrudes: (3.4) Where such policies obtain, PhD supervisors and academic staff can effectively treat PhD students as unwilling co-aithors, demanding that they produce articles that supervisors or others can sign. This is a separate problem, the problem of academic piracy and tribute signatures. This occurs more often in universities with forced publishing as requirement for completing the PhD. If students want to publish before completion, and if they want to co-author with supervisors or others on a voluntary basis, that’s great. Requiring PhD students to publish before completion is inappropriate.
In 2012, Gerda Gemser and three other co-authors did a study on the leading design journals. If you’d like to read tha article, you will find it here:
Gemser, Gerda, Cees de Bont, Paul Hekkert, and Ken Friedman. 2012. “Quality Perceptions of Design Journals: The Design Scholars’ Perspective.” Design Studies (2012), Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 4-23. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2011.09.001
Five years later, some of the information on relative rankings on the short lists will have changed, and there are at least five new journals to consider as destinations for research articles in design. Here is the expanded list of 45 top journals:
Applied Ergonomics
CoDesign
Computer-Aided Design
Creativity and Innovation Management
Design and Culture
Design Issues
Design Management Journal
Design Philosophy Papers
Design Research Quarterly
Design Science
Design Studies
Digital Creativity
Ergonomics
Ergonomics in Design
Empirical Studies of the Arts
FormAkademisk
Human-Computer Interaction
Human Factors
Information Design Journal
Interacting with Computers
International Journal of Art & Design Education
International Journal of Design
International Journal of Product Development
International Journal of Sustainable Design
International Journal of Technology and Design Education
International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing
Journal of Design, Business & Society
Journal of Design History
Journal of Design Research
Journal of Engineering Design
Journal of Interior Design
Journal of Material Culture
Journal of Mechanical Design
Journal of Product Innovation Management
Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces
Materials & Design
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Research in Engineering Design
Sciences du Design
She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation
The Design Journal
The Journal of Sustainable Product Design
The Senses & Society
Visible Language
Visual Communication
For journals in other fields, there are far too many possibilities to permit discussion here. Once again, I recommend using the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers. It permits you to survey journals by field. First, go to the main web site at:
https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/KanalTreffliste
If you get the Norwegian site, click on the Union Jack for English. Then go to the line that reads:
Switch to advanced search
Click on this and it will take you to the search tool.
There are two more posts to come in this series of notes. I hope those of you who want to learn more about possible publishing venues have found this helpful.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
