Short Description
This lesson on journal prestige could be taught by itself, as part of a series on scholarly communication, or as a small part of a larger lesson on information prestige.
Learning Outcomes
Students will recognize the practices of scholarly publishers
Students will evaluate whether citation count is a good indicator of authority
Relevant Links
Discipline
Participation Type
Ability Level
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips
This topic could fit well into instruction sessions that include significant treatment of source evaluation and is one potential approach as you move beyond simple categorization of sources as scholarly/non-scholarly or primary/secondary. It stops short of a critical examination of construction of authority but could be used to hint at greater subtlety and complexity. This topic has particular relevance for upper level undergraduates engaged in research, who may be starting to think about publication from an author’s perspective.
