Beyond Impact Factor Fetishism: Representing Justice in Criminal Justice and Criminology Journals

Abstract

This article explores how justice research is evaluated, measured, and communicated in the peer-reviewed social science journal industry. We examine issues of impact factor and journal prestige as measured using common citation indices. Engaging with literature on impact factors and their proliferation across the social sciences, we compare impact factor, subscription cost, and other indicators of journal prestige for 41 criminology, criminal justice, and socio-legal studies journals. Our findings suggest an upward trend in emphasis on impact factor and a concurrent upward trend in cost of journal subscriptions, which we claim illustrate trends in the corporatization of journal production, publication, and management. We reflect on other consequences of publishing industry corporatization, including the rise of predatory journal publishers as well as the outsourcing of journal production. In conclusion, we contrast the corporate journal publishing model with autonomous journal production (e.g., The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research, The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons), raising questions about what it means to represent justice in academic journal publications.