Journal Rankings and Academic Research: Two Discourses About the Quality of Faculty Work
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0893318909335419
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Hogler, Raymond and Michael A. Gross
Management Communication Quarterly
2009

Abstract:

Peer evaluation is the hallmark of the academic profession. Hiring, advancement, and reputation in the university setting have traditionally depended on a scholar's work as judged by his or her colleagues. The emerging trend toward journal ranking as an indicator of research accomplishment poses an important challenge to professional academic standards and to higher education generally because ranking schemes diminish the professoriate and degrade knowledge work. We argue that when scholarly journals are ranked in terms of their desirability as publication outlets they take on the characteristics of commodities.