Crossing the great divide?. A survey of US and UK real estate journals
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Pages | 519-535 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006188 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Author | Seow Eng Ong,Joseph Ooi,Nyuk Hien Wong |
| Subject Matter | Property management & built environment |
Academic papers:
Crossing the
great divide?
519
Journal of Property Investment &
Finance, Vol. 19 No. 6, 2001,
pp. 519-534. #MCB University
Press, 1463-578X
ACADEMIC PAPERS
Crossing the great divide?
A survey of US and UK real estate
journals
Seow Eng Ong, Joseph Ooi and Nyuk Hien Wong
School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore,
Singapore
Keywords Real estate, Journal publishing, USA, United Kingdom
Abstract This study examines the issue of cross-continental publishing in real estate research to
understand the research interaction between the two major English-speaking countries and to
determine if a home bias exists. This study also determines the extent to which authors from
other countries publish in US and UK journals, and provide a ranking of non-US universities and
authors. The survey of top US and UK real estate journals from 1993 through 1998 reveals that
a home bias exists. The home bias concentration is higher in US journals than in UK journals,
while UK journals exhibit more balanced origins, emanating not only from the USA/Canada, but
also from Australia, New Zealand and Asia. In addition, the study reveals that the Universities of
Reading, Ulster and Glasgow are well placed among European universities, while the National
University of Singapore ranks well in Asia. Top US researchers tend to publish exclusively in US
journals; likewise the same is observed for UK researchers. However, some notable exceptions are
observed. Finally, a possible reason for the home bias could be the different research approaches
undertaken by US and UK journals.
Introduction
The academic community in general and the real estate discipline in particular
have been concerned with the ranking of departments and authors. Previous
studies that rank departments and/or authors have typically focussed only on
US journals (Albert and Chandy, 1986; Diaz et al., 1996; Faircloth and Swidler,
1998) and publications in UK journals have traditionally been neglected. For
instance, Diaz et al. (1996) rank only US journals, while Clauretie and
Daneshvary (1993) rank only US real estate authors.
Nevertheless, real estate authors from non-US countries publish in US
journals, and some do so at frequent intervals. Likewise, US authors publish
internationally as well, and the UK journals provide natural avenues. However,
few formal studies examine the question of cross-continental publishing. We
contend that it is interesting to do so not only to understand the research
interaction between the two major English-speaking countries but also to
determine if a home bias exists. Home bias is defined as the tendency to publish
in the country of origin, i.e. where US authors tend to publish in US journals
and UK authors publish in UK journals.
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emerald-library.com/ft
The authors wish to thank Serene Ang and Patricia Lim for their assistance in data compilation.
Any errors remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
JPIF
19,6
520
Currently, there is little consensus in terms of the top real estate authors and
universities from non-US countries. This study will also determine the extent to
which authors from other countries, broadly categorized into regions ± Europe,
Australia/New Zealand and Asia ± publish in US and UK journals.
Literature review
In this section we review relevant past studies on the ranking of real estate
research by individual authors, and departments.
Clauretie and Daneshvary (1993) are amongst the first to undertake an
exercise to rank authors in the USA. They argue that the ranking can provide
information for students applying for admission, faculty applying for
employment, and employers of real estate faculty. Clauretie and Daneshvary's
ranking was done on the basis of the number of articles published in three
journals, namely The Journal of American Real Estate and Urban Economics
Association,The Journal of Real Estate Research, and Journal of Real Estate
Finance and Economics. Multiple authorship was adjusted by weighting each
article by 1/n where nis the number of authors. The authors were also ranked
by the number of citations of their work in the same three journals.
Since real estate faculty are generally employed within a finance department in
US universities, Faircloth and Swidler (1998) examine the relative productivity
between real estate and finance faculty. Drawing from a data set that includes the
publication records and salaries of 311 real estate and finance faculty, their
regression results suggest that real estate faculty within a finance department, on
average, publish more real estate and finance publications than do their finance
colleagues. The real estate journals include in their study are Real Estate Economics,
Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics,JournalofRealEstateResearch,
Journal of Urban Economics,Land Economics,andJournal of Housing Research.
Allen and Kau (1991) survey and analyse the contributing authors and
institutions to the Journal of Urban Economics from 1974 to 1989. In a more
recent study, Dombrow and Turnbull (2000) focused on the individuals and
institutions contributing articles in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and
Economics during its first 12 years. Ranking of authors was carried out on the
basis of the number of publication as well as the number of adjusted pages
(total pages of article published divided by the number of authors). The study
reveals that contributions by universities outside the USA and by private
companies have risen during the 12 years. The study also shows that co-
authorship has increased during the study period.
As mentioned earlier, most of the existing studies are based on journals in
the USA. There have been relatively few studies mapping the contribution of
individuals and institutions in the UK. Adair et al. (2000) examine the role and
impact of the RICS Cutting Edge property research conference on the UK
property research community. Besides recording the contribution of
individuals and institutions, they also evaluate the impact of the papers
presented at the conference by analyzing their eventual publication rate in peer
reviewed journals as well as the number of citation in journal papers.
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