A Citation Proportions Evaluation of Real Estate Research

Abstract The citation proportions methodology is used to evaluate real estate as a separate academic discipline and to rank the influence of real estate journals. The research confirms the influence of the top business-oriented real estate journals, shows that influential academic real estate research is concentrated in a core group of real estate journals, indicates a declining influence of non-real estate journals in generating citations, and shows that the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics has increased its influence on real estate research. The citation proportions for the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics for shorter time lags are noticeably above those of other journals. The results imply that real estate has a separate literature stream focused on topics, theories, and methodologies relevant to business-oriented real estate researchers. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) An academic discipline requires a set of core theories, methodologies, and research outlets. Although the real estate discipline has developed a set of generally accepted theories, methodologies, and research outlets, there does remain some uncertainty as to this achievement by administrators and other academic researchers, especially those who may only be tangentially involved with business-oriented real estate research. The present study builds on existing studies quantifying the expansion of the real estate discipline and its delineation of primary sources for knowledge creation and dissemination. The citation proportions methodology is used to evaluate the influence of the top business-oriented real estate journals, to analyze the concentration of citations found in the articles published in the top real estate journals, to show that current influential academic real estate research is being published in a core group of real estate journals, and to quantify the declining influence of non-real estate journals in generating citations. The end result is a clear picture of a discipline with a known core of research outlets and, by implication, a known core of research topics of interest with accompanying theories and methodologies. There have been a number of recent studies that have evaluated individual and institutional research productivity and ranked real estate related journals. Dombrow and Turnbull (2002) delineate three core real estate journals (Real Estate Economics,1 Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Journal of Real Estate Research) and five additional broad real estate journals (Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Housing Economics, Land Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, and Journal of Regional Science). Dombrow and Turnbull then assess individual and institutional research productivity based on appearances in these journals. In a related work, Dombrow and Turnbull (2004) use citation counts to rank research productivity. Again, this builds upon prior research by Dombrow and Turnbull (2000), which is complemented by Hardin, Beauchamp, Liano, and Hill (2006), who provide additional analysis of individual and institutional research. While most of the existing research is based on research production in specific journals by individuals and institutions, this research is related to a central premise of the present research, which is that real estate researchers have created and fostered a known series of premier research outlets that have become more concentrated over time. Concurrently, there is also a known group of researchers providing real estate research. In addition to the three works by Dombrow and Turnbull (2000, 2002, 2004), there have been a number of other papers that rank real estate journals using either survey or citation-based methodologies. Hardin, Beauchamp, Liano, and Hill (2006) evaluate the real estate journals by examining where editorial board members publish. The logic is that publication in influential real estate journals is a prerequisite for selection to an editorial board. …