The Australian Business Deans Council has (finally) announced the reviewers charged with the third assessment of its journal quality list, created in 2007. They are Monash emeritus professor Kim Langfield-Smith and Essex University Business School dean Geoffrey Wood, who holds honorary positions at Monash and Griffith.

Learned readers who know Professor Langfield-Smith say she is a great pick, pointing to the way she created a journal ranking at Monash. “There were people who disliked the concept but no one could question her efficiency or transparency,” one says.

The ABCD advises she and Professor Wood will “recommend a revised methodology for determining rankings that will seek to create a regular and consistent application of the existing ‘relative standing’ component of the 2007-2016 process.” The ranking is “mainly” based on “citation metrics and other reputable journal quality lists, including recognised disciplinary lists.”

Langfield-Smith and Wood will report to the Business Academic Research Directors Network, which will recommend a response to the council. However, there is no public timeline for the process and ABDC says submissions to the review are not open. Business researchers will be keen to submit when they can, some are anxious to argue against an emphasis on high-status international journals in the new list, lest local researchers writing on local issues and publishing locally suffer, (CMM August 28).