Not that this is particularly relevant to biblical studies, but I have just learned today that my high school (Acton Boxboro Regional in Mass.) has been ranked the #4 public high school out of the entire Northeastern region of the country (take that Lincoln-Sudbury!). Not only that, but Money magazine has ranked the town of Acton, where I grew up, as its #16 best place to live.

We all know that rankings are flawed, but they nevertheless give us bragging rights. Did I mention that my Ph.D. program is in one of the top ten history programs in the nation? All I had to do was tell ‘em I grew up in Action Acton and went to AB.

I was motivated by a recent post and follow-up comment on Charles Halton’s blog regarding the ranking of journals in biblical studies. Angela Erisman responded in a comment with this advice:

Also, a better way to gauge the prestige of a journal than a list like the one you mention is simply to pay close attention to the footnotes in what you read. Journals that are frequently cited are the ones widely read in the discipline. This is where your work is likely to get the most readership, and these are probably the ones considered most important.

This seems like sage advice, and somewhat measurable. So, I decided to perform an imperfect experiment in searching for the importance of various journals by searching books. Google books has a vast number of biblical studies materials searchable and seems a good place to begin. So, below is a sampling of some of the major journals in which one may publish a New Testament article (my field), followed by my disclaimer of known imperfections in this method of ranking. What do you think of the results? How might we do this better?

1. Journal of Biblical Literature (803 books)
2. New Testament Studies (765 books)
3. Journal of Theological Studies (742 books)
4. Catholic Biblical Quarterly (720 books)
5. Novum Testamentum (636 books)
6. Journal for the Study of the New Testament (634 books)
7. Biblical Archaeology Review (633 books)
8. Biblical Theology Bulletin (620 books)
9. Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche [ZNW] (618 books)
10. Bibliotheca Sacra (457 books)
11. Journal of Early Christian Studies (333 books)
12. Bible Review (117 books)
13. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (96 books)
14. Ex Auditu (23 books)
15. Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus (18 books)

Already knowing that this is imperfect, I noticed more difficulties after beginning the searches. Some journals (like “New Testament Studies”) consisted of a very common phrase, so I limited the search to books that also include the standard abbreviation for that journal (e.g., “NTS”). I could not use only the abbreviation of that journal because some abbreviations stand for other things (e.g., JBL), which skews the results. I also removed the title of the journal from the title of the books, just in case the journals are indexed on Google books (some are and others aren’t). This search also does not discriminate in terms of dates. So, it could turn things up published in 1911 whereas another well-respected journal may not have begun at that point. I could modify the publication dates in the search, but I’d rather allow journals with longevity the benefit. The main problem I’m having with this list is that these searches only give me the amount of books that cite these journals, not the amount of citations within those books.

This ranking also does not account for the type of article you are submitting, another topic covered in Angela’s original comment.

All of that said, this is only a test. Help me figure out a better way of doing this sort of search.