Journal Quality

Dr. Z spent a lot of time yesterday on my article selection and short-version proposal.  He said that version 2 was better, but I wasn't working with the best articles.  So far in my literature search, I've found 317 different pieces of literature - and have felt overwhelmed by that number.

So I asked him what "best articles" meant.  He sent me the "Academic Journal Quality Guide, version 4" by the Association of Business Schools (UK).  It grades all the academic journals from Grade 4 (the best) to Grade 1 (the not-as-good).

Last night and continued this morning, I went through my list of 317 and put the ABS's grades next to each journal in my EndNote library.  Then I saved a copy of my EndNote library and deleted all non-graded articles.  

The result?  I had only 112 graded articles in my library - much more manageable than 317 (duh!).  


Next steps:

1. Start version 3 of the proposal.
2. Review the better articles for this next version.
3. Revisit title and purpose statement - which will probably mean adjusting/tweaking research problems and hypotheses, but probably not too much (at least, I hope so!).
4. Then, do another literature search.

It's moving along.