Academic Journal Rankings: Which One Should I Use?

So you've written a brilliant paper and now you're staring at seven different journal ranking systems wondering which one actually matters. Welcome to academia, where we've somehow managed to create seven different ways to measure the same thing, and yes, they all disagree with each other.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: publishing in the "wrong" ranking system is like showing up to a black-tie event in cargo shorts. Your paper might be phenomenal, but if it's not in the ranking system your university cares about, good luck explaining that to the tenure committee.

The answer to "which ranking should I use?" is annoyingly simple: it depends where you work. I know, I know—you wanted a universal answer. But academia decided long ago that consistency is overrated.

The TL;DR Version

Don't have time for nuance? Here's your cheat sheet:

Germany/Austria/Switzerland? Use VHB. German universities treat VHB like gospel. Publishing in a non-VHB journal, no matter how prestigious elsewhere, is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

United Kingdom/Ireland? ABS is your new best friend. The REF basically runs on ABS rankings, and UK job ads will literally specify "minimum ABS 3*" like it's a hard requirement (because it is).

Australia/New Zealand? ABDC or you might as well not bother. ERA evaluations are built on ABDC. That fancy journal you published in? If it's not on the ABDC list, it's invisible.

France? HCERES. French academia marches to its own drummer, and that drummer plays HCERES rankings.

United States? If you're at a top-tier business school, UTD and FT50 are what matter (and yes, they'll pay you bonuses for UTD publications like you just won the lottery). Everyone else uses ABS or SJR.

Working internationally or doing interdisciplinary research? SJR is your safest bet. It covers 25,000+ journals across all disciplines, making it the Swiss Army knife of ranking systems.

How Did We End Up With Seven Ranking Systems?

Great question. The short answer is that different countries couldn't agree on what makes a journal "good," so they each created their own ranking system. Then they institutionalized them into funding formulas and promotion criteria. Now we're stuck with this beautiful mess.

The VHB folks in Germany think management journals should be ranked differently than the ABDC crew in Australia. The British ABS committee has opinions. The Americans decided that only 24 journals (UTD) or 50 journals (FT50) truly matter for business research. France created HCERES because... well, because it's France.

Meanwhile, SJR looked at this chaos and said "we'll just rank everything" and proceeded to include 25,000+ journals from every discipline imaginable.

The Geographic Reality Check

Here's what actually happens at different universities:

German universities have VHB embedded in their DNA. Your promotion guidelines will specify things like "3 VHB A+ publications in 5 years" with the specificity of a German engineering manual. Publishing that amazing paper in a journal that's not on VHB? The committee will look at you like you just suggested evaluating research based on Twitter likes.

UK universities live and die by ABS because the REF (Research Excellence Framework) determines their funding. Job ads will straight-up say "candidates must have ABS 3* or higher publications" like they're listing minimum height requirements for a roller coaster. It's not subtle.

Australian universities are equally uncompromising about ABDC. The ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) runs on ABDC rankings, and publishing outside the list is like trying to pay for groceries with Monopoly money. Technically paper, functionally useless.

French universities use HCERES for state funding allocations, and they also value French-language journals that don't appear on Anglo-American lists. If you're working in France and only targeting ABS or ABDC journals, you're missing the point.

US business schools at the top tier will literally pay you $10,000-$50,000 bonuses for UTD publications. (Yes, really. Academia found a way to gamify publishing.) But here's the catch: UTD only includes 24 journals. For everyone else at teaching-focused schools, ABS or SJR Q1 journals work fine.

Does Your Discipline Actually Matter?

Yes, but not as much as your geography.

VHB, ABS, and UTD excel at business and management disciplines because that's what they were designed for. ABDC has exceptional finance coverage. SJR is the only option that genuinely covers STEM fields and interdisciplinary research because it doesn't discriminate—it ranks everything from astrophysics to zoology.

If you're doing interdisciplinary work that crosses traditional boundaries, SJR is probably your only option unless you want to explain to every promotion committee why your field doesn't fit neatly into their preferred ranking system.

What Should You Actually Do?

First, find your university's promotion or tenure guidelines. Yes, I know they're buried in a PDF nobody reads, but dig them up. They'll tell you exactly which ranking system matters for your career advancement. This is literally the most important step, and most people skip it.

Second, if you're planning to move countries or work internationally, target journals that rank well in multiple systems. Think of it as academic insurance—you're covered no matter where you end up.

Third, use our Reference Analyzer to check how journals rank across all seven systems simultaneously. It's faster than manually cross-referencing seven different databases, and you'll avoid the awkward situation of celebrating a publication only to discover your university doesn't recognize that ranking system.

The Uncomfortable Truth

There is no "best" journal ranking system. There's only the ranking system that your specific institution cares about at this specific moment.

The safest strategy? Publish in journals that appear in multiple ranking systems. The riskiest strategy? Assuming that prestige in one ranking system translates everywhere (it doesn't).

And if you're still confused about which ranking to use, just check your university's promotion guidelines. Because at the end of the day, the only ranking that matters is the one the people evaluating your tenure application actually read.

Want to see how your publications stack up across all seven ranking systems? Try our Reference Analyzer—it's free, it's fast, and it might save your next promotion review.

Last updated: November 2025