Publication Strategy for QS Quacquarelli-Symonds World University Rankings

Why the FT50 isn't everything

Today is a short but punchy one. I have learned some VERY interesting things about the QS methodology. My university has risen to its highest ranking position ever, and it turns out they had bought some QS a year or so ago. Which looks like it paid off.

So, if you do not know the QS ranking, you might be in a country and at a university that are not reliant on overseas students. But if you work in the UK or Australia, you are guaranteed to know what it is and why it is important: it is the single most important determinant in recruiting Chinese students.

As the story goes, Sheffield dropped out of the QS100 one year, and its international student recruitment cratered, only to recover in the next year, when the university rejoined the top 100.

Academic work is increasingly dominated by lists and rankings. It’s not all H-index and FT50 — where you are located, geographically and institutionally, will impact your publication strategy. Today’s post is an extension of this one, summarising the many rankings (which I will soon update to reflect the revised FT50 list):

• Publishing Strategies for Historical Researchers in Management

Also check out this post, now freely available, to learn more about publishing in business history journals:

• Publishing in Business History

Next week, check out the video recording of the webinar on Publishing Historical Research in Management by the British Academy of Management Business History SIG with Prof Chris Hartwell! The review of his article is here:

• “Connected to a Sinking Ship? Firm performance in a besieged autocracy” by Chris Hartwell (Reading Club)

If that still sounds absurd to you because you are somewhere where this does not matter, this statement is probably only slightly exaggerated: Being in the QS100 makes the difference between another round of redundancies (possibly not the voluntary kind) and no redundancies for universities in the UK and Australia.

And yes, we also have the REF, but it is not annual, and that is increasingly the signal, not the money.

That’s all grand, but why am I writing about it on History in Organizations? Because business school academics who can publish in historical journals (and get cited, important caveat!) have literally just hit the jackpot.

And this is super-secret, not widely known at all, knowledge, so the rest is behind a paywall and will stay there.