Research.com forwarded the "good news" that I was one of the top 1000 most influential social scientists in the United States.
When I forwarded the news to a friend, saying hey, isn't this cool. He asked, "why aren't you in the Business and Management category?"
I had no idea - so I took a look at the research.com page about my work: https://lnkd.in/gHyv5y8z
Apparently, an ML algorithm was used to analyze and classify my work. The website explains, "This overview was generated by a machine learning system which analyzed the scientist's body of work."
As I poked around the website, I realized the rankings were based on H-index and citation.
Because I sit in a business school, I mapped my h-index to the research.com rankings in business and management research. If I was placed in that bucket, I would be in the top 250 most cited business researchers in the United States.
What to do? Report the misclassification? Based on where I sit? and look better? Or embrace the reality? Based on what I study? and swim in red water with the social scientists?
I like the reality - my work sits at the vertices of business, social science, and the humanities - and by spanning disciplines - I'm able to, and my students can ask more interesting questions.
So, there will be no report - there will be joy in knowing that folks are reading my research, that I can swim in the red waters of the social sciences (social scientists are sharks!), and that by pursuing work that I find interesting, I'm contributing to a broader discourse about how digital technologies are changing the world.
I am happy to be a business scholar and a social scientist!
Post-script: a comment on rankings.
I'm no fan of ranking systems (more here: https://lnkd.in/gdrCBRtR and here: https://lnkd.in/g-n7pQnF ). I think they take attention away from ideas. However, if we are going to have them, they should be based on the words that we write & not on where a person sits or publishes or a popularity contest.
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