Through the eyes of the eGov scholarly community: Perceptions of the quality of journals publishing electronic government research

Abstract

Purpose

There are a number of published studies that have ranked journals publishing research in information systems and related areas such as electronic commerce. Despite electronic government (eGov) research reaching a decade‐old milestone, none of the existing research has attempted to explore and determine the quality of journals publishing research related to this multidisciplinary area. To fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a pilot survey exploring the scholarly perceptions of academic journals publishing eGov research.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire‐based pilot survey was employed as the method for conducting this research. The survey was conducted by employing an e‐mail questionnaire which was designed as a Word file. In total, 31 usable responses were received and these provided the data presented in this paper.

Findings

The findings in the form of scholarly perceptions of journals publishing eGov research from this pilot survey explored the quality of journals. This pilot survey also explored respondents’ views on the following: whether the journals dedicated to eGov should be included in various journal rankings; and whether there is a need to have separate rankings for journals that publish eGov.

Research limitations/implications

The generalization of findings is limited due to the small sample size as it was a pilot study. Hence, the findings should be treated as indicative rather than confirmatory of the quality of journals publishing eGov research. A larger survey needs to be conducted, in order to validate and generalize the findings reported in this submission.

Practical implications

The findings would be helpful for eGov researchers in terms of determining potential outlets with appropriate quality for future publications, and for universities/institutions engaged in supporting research in this area by recognizing and promoting publication in high‐quality outlets. The findings may also aid the decision making of those involved in maintaining journal rankings in reference to disciplines, in order to include dedicated eGov journals in such rankings.

Originality/value

There has been no research conducted and published (as far as the author is aware) that explores and determines the quality of journals publishing eGov research, which this paper attempts to achieve. Therefore, the findings presented in this paper are timely, original, and relevant to the eGov scholarly community. Since this is the very first step towards determining journal quality for publishing eGov research, the most important contribution of this paper would be to stimulate constructive debate amongst researchers of eGov (and its reference disciplines) on this topic, which (the author hopes) will then lead to the creation of rigorous consensus‐based ranking of journals publishing eGov research.

Citation

Dwivedi, Y.K. (2013), "Through the eyes of the eGov scholarly community: Perceptions of the quality of journals publishing electronic government research", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 207-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391311325199