Journal and periodical usefulness as rated by hospitality faculty members.

Hospitality educators rate 17 different hospitality-industry periodicals according to their usefulness for professional development, research-related purposes, and classroom applications.

A major responsibility of hospitality faculty members is to conduct research and to publish the results.

Indeed, the effectiveness of faculty members in publishing their research has far-reaching effects in such areas as promotions, tenure, and compensation decisions, as well as the perceived prestige and reputation of their academic programs among outsiders. Authors may choose from among many journals and magazines that publish hospitality-related research, and the choice of which outlet is best is a fairly complex one. For instance, academic publications are often preferred over nonacademic publications because of their impact on promotions, tenure, and compensation decisions. Many institutions, in fact, treat a faculty member's successful publication of an article in a hospitality trade journal as "service" rather than "research." Refereed academic publications are also preferred by authors over non-refereed academic publications.(1)

Nonhospitality publications represent an additional channel used by hospitality faculty for publishing their research results. Hospitality educators also often rely on the nonhospitality literature while conducting their research and when assigning articles for students to read. They may also use material from such articles for their lectures; and they enhance their professional and personal development by reading from a wide variety of journals.

Given the variety of uses and sources of published hospitality-related information, this study investigated the question regarding which journal or journals are most preferred by hospitality educators for the various uses.

Literature Review

Several years ago Kent and Rutherford surveyed CHRIE members of four-year colleges for their evaluation of eight academic refereed hospitality journals.(2) The eight publications were rated on the basis of academic prestige, preference of acceptance, and educational usefulness. "Educational usefulness" included both (1) as a basis for lectures and (2) as a source for student readings and handouts.(3)

That Kent and Rutherford study was a first step in the evaluation of hospitality journals. We determined that it was time to revisit the question of hospitality-journal usefulness, and we surmised that many educators draw upon journals other than refereed hospitality journals. As a result, our study includes both academic and nonacademic journals and both hospitality and nonhospitality journals.

Research Design

Members of CHRIE residing in the United States and Canada and affiliated with two-year and four-year colleges were asked to rate 17 publications across the following five potential uses: (1) for publishing their own articles, (2) as a research-information source, (3) as a source of information for lectures, (4) for students' assigned readings, and (5) as general reading for professional or personal development.

The five-point scale used to rate the journals was from "least useful" to "most useful." Other alternatives included "occasionally useful," "neutral," and "usually useful." In addition, we provided a "do not use" alternative.

The 17 publications included in this research (Exhibit 1) were selected based on the responses from 60 hospitality faculty members who participated in a pilot study designed to determine the most useful publications. The participants in the journal-selection process were those who voluntarily responded from 126 contacted.

Among the 126 potential participants contacted were the 86 most prolific authors identified by Rutherford and Samenfink and 40 two-year-program educators provided to us as representatives of their field by Ed Sherwin, recent past chairman of CHRIE.(4)

Each respondent was asked to list those periodicals that they, as faculty members, believed to be useful. Nearly 300 different publications were named, including such diverse periodicals as American Demographics, Decision Service, Newsweek, the New York Times, and the Hospitality Research Journal. The publications identified by ten or more respondents constitute the list of journals in our study.

It is interesting to note that this list of 17 periodicals includes eight hospitality trade publications, two nonhospitality publications, and seven hospitality-and-tourism academic journals. The availability of these 17 periodicals to hospitality faculty members most likely differs significantly. Several of the trade publications (e.g., Restaurant Business, Restaurants & Institutions) are free to hospitality educators.

At the other extreme are academic journals that may cost up to $200 annually for four or six issues per year. In addition, some publications are available only to educators who are members of various associations. For example, members of the National Restaurant Association receive Restaurants USA while members of the American Hotel & Motel Association receive Lodging. CHRIE provides four-year-college educators with the Hospitality Research Journal and the Hospitality and Tourism Educator while two-year-college educators receive only the latter publication.

Exhibit 1

Periodicals rated in this study

Presented in alphabetical order:

Annals of Tourism Research Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly FlU Hospitality Review Harvard Business Review Hospitality and Tourism Educator Hospitality Research Journal Hotel and Motel Management International Journal of Hospitality Management Journal of Travel Research Lodging Lodging Hospitality Nation's Restaurant News Restaurants & Institutions Restaurant Business Restaurant Hospitality Restaurants USA Wall Street Journal

Survey Respondents

Of the approximately 1,000 surveys mailed to CHRIE members throughout North America, just over 300 were returned completed. Exhibit 2 shows selected characteristics of the respondents. About 70 percent of the respondents are tenure-track faculty members, the greatest percentage of whom are professors. For nearly half of the participants the highest degree possessed is a master's (only 37.3 percent hold a doctorate). Nearly two-thirds of the respondents are from four-year college programs. About one-third of respondents reported that the highest degree granted by their institution is an associate's degree and another third indicated a bachelor's degree. Master's and doctoral degrees each were granted by fewer than 20 percent of the respondents' institutions.

Additional characteristics of respondents are as follows:

* Administrative titles are held by 135 of the respondents. The most common title was "department head" (47 individuals) followed by "director" (42 individuals).

* Just over 95 percent are employed full-time as educators.

* The majority of respondents' institutions are public (75.9 percent).

* Just over two-thirds of the respondents were male.

* The years of college-teaching experience represented in our sample ranged from zero to 39 years; the median teaching experience was nine years, while the mode was four years. Fifteen percent of the respondents have over 20 years of teaching experience.

Exhibit 2

Characteristics of respondents

Faculty rank               N              percentage

Lecturer                   7                     2.3
Instructor                60                    19.8
Assistant professor       88                    29.1
Associate professor       61                    20.1
Professor                 60                    19.8
Other, not indicated      27                     8.9

Total                    303                   100

Type of
institution                N              percentage

Technical school           8                     2.7
Two-year college         102                    34.1
Four-year college        189                    63.2

Total                    299                   100

Highest degree
earned                     N              percentage

Bachelor's                31                    10.2
Master's                 147                    48.5
Doctorate                113                    37.3
Other, not indicated      12                     4.0

Total                    303                   100

Highest
degree granted
by institution             N              percentage

Associate                 94                    32.9
Bachelor's                86                    30.1
Master's                  47                    16.4
Doctorate                 49                    17.1
Other                     10                     3.5

Total                    286                   100

We queried the respondents regarding the number of articles they had published over the past three years. This question offered the choices of "hospitality refereed," "nonhospitality refereed," "hospitality trade," "nonhospitality trade," and "other." Unfortunately, many respondents did not complete this [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 3 OMITTED] question. This could mean that they did not have any published articles, though we cannot be sure of that. Exhibit 3 shows the respondents' publication record.

The most common channel for published articles is, as we expected, refereed hospitality journals. This channel was used by 106 (35 percent) of the respondents. The other channels used are summarized in Exhibit 3.

Of the 303 respondents, 164 reported publishing at least one article during the past three years.

Research results. Respondents were asked to evaluate the 17 periodicals regarding the usefulness of each for publishing their own articles. The overall results are shown in Exhibit 4. The "no response" and "do not use" responses are combined and hereafter will be referred to as "nonresponse." Keep in mind that a low nonresponse rate is positive in that it indicates that a journal has achieved high visibility and awareness among hospitality educators whereas a high nonresponse rate may mean that a journal is relatively unknown.

As an Outlet for Respondents' Writings

In the "useful as an outlet" category, more than half of the respondents rated the Hospitality and Tourism Educator (Educator), Hospitality Research Journal (HRJ), and the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly (Cornell Quarterly) as something other than "nonresponse." None of the other journals received as much attention in this category. In fact, the results reveal that several publications are seldom used by respondents (as indicated by a 70-percent or higher nonresponse rate).

The Cornell Quarterly received the highest "most useful" for publication response. A total of 45 participants (15 percent) indicated that the Cornell Quarterly is the most useful as an outlet for their writings and research. The HRJ (14 percent) and the Educator (10 percent) also received relatively high scores in this category.

An "overall usefulness for publication" score is shown in Exhibit 4. This score was determined by weighting the responses and summing each publication's scores. On that basis, the HRJ was rated as the top publication outlet for CHRIE members. The HRJ was followed closely by the Cornell Quarterly and the Educator. The overall rating of the two academic tourism journals (the Journal of Travel Research and the Annals of Tourism Research) was low. However, this was expected as only 15 of the study's 303 respondents indicated that their major area of expertise is tourism.

Among the trade publications, Nation's Restaurant News (NRN) fared best with 302 points, followed by Restaurants & Institutions (R&I) with 265 points. Clearly, however, the publications of choice of CHRIE members are the refereed academic journals. This result comes as no surprise as most hospitality programs place a much greater emphasis on faculty members' work that is published in refereed journals.

For Research Information

Participants rated the 17 journals on their usefulness as a source of research information (Exhibit 5). The journals receiving the lowest non-response rates were the Cornell Quarterly and the Educator (each received less than 30 percent nonresponse). Other journals receiving low nonresponse scores were NRN, HRJ, and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The two tourism journals (JTR and ATR) each received nonresponse rates greater than 60 percent. The Cornell Quarterly was again recognized by the largest percentage of respondents (30 percent) as being most useful, followed by the HRJ (19 percent) and the Educator (15 percent).

The overall "usefulness for research" rating reveals that participants consider the Cornell Quarterly most useful overall, followed by the Educator and the HRJ. The lowest overall scores were received by the two tourism journals. Once again, we expect this is primarily due to the fact that those journals focus on tourism issues, and tourism educators [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 4 OMITTED] [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 5 OMITTED] [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 6 OMITTED] [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 7 OMITTED] were not well represented in our sample.

Other highly rated publications for this category include the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Nation's Restaurant News, the FlU Hospitality Review and Restaurants & Institutions. It appears, then, that many CHRIE members rely more heavily on some trade publications than they do on some refereed hospitality journals for their sources of research information.

For Information for Lectures

Respondents rated the usefulness of the 17 periodicals as a source of information for lectures. By their own admission many CHRIE members conduct little research and seldom publish articles. Moreover, fe.w, if any, CHRIE members have academic appointments that allow them to spend all of their time on research and none on teaching (a type of academic position that does exist in other disciplines) . We expected, therefore, that trade journals would be relatively more useful to CHRIE members as information for lectures and assigned readings for students than as channels for publishing articles or as sources of research information. We found this to be the case with the exception of the Cornell Quarterly and the Educator.

Exhibit 6 reflects the results of respondents' evaluations of the usefulness of periodicals for information for lectures. The Cornell Quarterly received the lowest non-response rate (21 percent). Other publications with low nonresponse rates were Nation's Restaurant News, the Wall Street Journal, Restaurants & Institutions, and the Educator. Of this list, only the Cornell Quarterly and the Educator are academic journals.

Publications rated by participants as most useful in this category are the Cornell Quarterly (22 percent), NRN (17 percent), the WSJ (16 percent), Lodging (11 percent) and Restaurants USA (10 percent). The overall rating also reveals the Cornell Quarterly as the most popular periodical for use in lectures. NRN and the WSJ also received high overall scores. Two other trade journals (Lodging and R&I) received overall ratings of over 600 points. Therefore, our research reveals that four of the top five publications most useful for lectures are not academic periodicals. The Educator, the sixth most popular publication, received a 643 overall rating, which is very close to Lodging (647) and R&I (667).

Those publications considered least useful for information for lectures include the two tourism journals (most likely for the reasons mentioned previously) and the International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM).

For Assigned Readings

Respondents rated the 17 journals for their usefulness as a source of students' assigned readings (Exhibit 7). Since several trade journals were rated highly as sources of useful information for lectures we expected a similar result for this category.

The lowest nonresponse rate was again achieved by the Cornell Quarterly (30 percent). Other low non-response scores include NRN (34 percent), WSJ (36 percent) and R&I (39 percent). The highest non-response rates (over 60 percent) were scored by the IJHM and the two tourism journals.

The publications that received more than a 10-percent response as "most useful" were the Cornell Quarterly (22 percent), NRN (16 percent), the WSJ (15 percent), and Lodging (11 percent). The highest overall rating in this category was given to the Cornell Quarterly. NRN and the WSJ each received more than 600 points as an overall rating. R&I, Lodging, and the Educator each received overall ratings in the 500-to-600-point range. Those results appear [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 8 OMITTED] [TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 9 OMITTED] pear to indicate clearly that after the Cornell Quarterly, trade-press publications are the most popular source for assigned readings for students.

Four academic journals received fewer than 400 points overall. Even CHRIE's own HRJ scored only 437 points, a relatively low score. One reason for HRJ's low score may be that only educators at four-year schools receive this publication.

For Professional or Personal Development

Respondents rated the 17 periodicals in regard to their usefulness for professional or personal development (Exhibit 8).The publications receiving the lowest nonresponse rates were the Cornell Quarterly (20 percent), the Educator (22 percent), NRN (22 percent), the WSJ (25 percent), and R&I (26 percent). The Cornell Quarterly was rated "most useful" by 36 percent of the respondents. The three other publications with "most useful" ratings over 20 percent were the Educator (27 percent), NRN (25 percent), and the WSJ (24 percent).

The overall rating in this category for the 17 journals ranged from 296 points for Annals if Tourism Research to 967 for the Cornell Quarterly. The Educator, NRN, and the WSJ each received an overall rating in the 800-to-900-point range while both R&I and HRJ received overall ratings in the 700-to-800-point range.

Thus, for professional or personal development, CHRIE members prefer a mix of academic journals and trade publications. One reason for this may be the frequency of publication of some of the trade journals. For instance, the WSJ is published five days a week and NRN is published weekly. This frequency of publication enables hospitality educators to remain current on developments in hospitality and business in general. We suspect the popularity of the Educator is due in part to the fact that it has a much broader distribution than the HRJ.

The Envelope, Please...

Based on the ratings it achieved in each category of our study, the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly is apparently the most useful publication for educators (see Exhibit 9). Nation's Restaurant News is the second most useful followed by the Hospitality and Tourism Educator. Restaurants & Institutions, the Wall Street Journal, and the Hospitality Research Journal are shown to be the next most useful publications overall. To us, the biggest surprise is the strong showing of nonrefereed journals.

It is not our purpose to speculate on how a study such as ours could or should affect tenure processes,job promotions, and salary negotiations. However, it is worth noting that while hospitality educators and administrators generally consider a faculty member's publication in a trade journal to be of limited value for the purpose of tenure and promotion reviews, trade journals nevertheless are considered by faculty members to be quite valuable for the uses described in this study.

Future Research

We see this study as just the second step in determining the usefulness of periodicals used by hospitality academics (Kent and Rutherford's 1986 study was the first step). Many instructors and professors teaching in hospitality schools specialize and, therefore, may have relatively little interest in several of the journals used in our study. That is to say, academicians who specialize are likely to read and publish in those journals that are specific to their field (e.g., finance, marketing, human-resources management) and not so much in hospitality per se.

Future research could focus on the usefulness of periodicals to such specialized fields. No doubt the two tourism journals included in this study would be rated higher by tourism specialists than is shown by this research.

1 Some journals primarily written by and geared to academic audiences are not peer-reviewed, for example, the Harvard Business Review and Hosteur.

2 William Kent and Denney G. Rutherford, "Peer Reviewing the Peer Reviewed: How Hospitality Educators Rank the Academic Journals," Hospitality Research Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1986), pp. 36-45. CHRIE is the Council for Hospitality, Restaurant, and Institutional Education.

3 The Cornell Quarterly received the top rating across all uses in that 1986 study.

4 Denney G. Rutherford and William Samenfink,"Most Frequent Contributors to the Hospitality Literature," Hospitality Research Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1992), pp. 23-39.

Raymond S. Schmidgall, Ph. D., CPA, is the Hilton Hotels Professor at the School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University, where Robert H. Woods, Ph. D., is an associate professor. Denney G. Rutherford, Ph. D., is a professor at the Hotel and Restaurant Administration program at Washington State University.