Rating journals in health care administration. The perceptions of program chairpersons

The perceived quality of a journal is often a heavily weighted factor in the appraisal of faculty performance. We developed a listing of 53 prominent journals in the field of health care administration and surveyed the chairpersons of the 52 accredited graduate programs in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, asking each to rate the level of achievement of a faculty member who published in each journal. Using the chi-square goodness-of-fit method for a multinomial experiment, we were able to identify six distinct "tiers" of journals and show a relationship between the subject category of a journal and its tier ranking. The implications of the study findings for faculty members are addressed, followed by a discussion of the data limitations and suggestions for future research.