Are you writing a Marketing thesis or research paper? Yes? Well, then this article is VERY IMPORTANT to you.

One of the key aspects you will be evaluated on is the credibility and suitability of your academic sources.

What does this mean?

It refers to where your theoretical foundation is coming from. If the works you are citing are credible enough for you to draw hypotheses, connect with other studies and build your own study.

And how do you know if the studies you are reading and citing are of great quality? Simple. The journals you search and use are RANKED according to many variables (mostly citation-based!), such as their impact factor, h-index and Eigenfactor.

The higher an academic journal is on the ranking, the “better” (theoretically!) the research published in it is.

How to Find the Most Highly Ranked Marketing Journals?

There are several journal rankings. But here are the main two I suggest to students:

  1. Scimago Journal Ranking

Well, there are easy ways of doing so. One way, is to visit Scimago Journal and Country Rank. It has an extremely easy display, where users can search through keywords.

Screenshot of the the scimagojr.com website, with marketing journals.
Source: scimagojr.com

2. ABS Journal Ranking (Association of Business Schools)

The ABS ranking has been widely used for years and is considered one of the most credible sources for journal rankings. There are multiple sources through which you can download their tables with rankings. Here is one example.

List of Best Scientific Journals in Marketing

Alright, now let’s get to what is truly important here: The Best Marketing Scientific Journals. The list below was taken from the ABS Journal Ranking from 2016. Even if you are reading this years after 2016, do not worry. The quality of these highly ranked journals are still mostly unquestionable.

The list of marketing journals presented here follows three classifications: A*, A and B. The rankings in many ways reflect the quality and relevance of the works that are submitted: depth of discussion, suitability of methodology, sample sizes, data collection, types of analysis and much more.

But (at least in my opinion), the ranking does not FULLY reflect the quality of the work. You will find EXCELLENT papers also published in B ranking journals. So make sure to visit all of them!

Here they are:

“A*” Marketing Journals

“A” Marketing Journals

“B” Marketing Journals

Use These Scientific Sources in Your Work!

Well, when writing your marketing thesis or research paper, make sure to read and reference works from these highly ranked journals. Why? Two main reasons:

  1. Quality of your own research idea: Since you are using these great sources, the development of your work will benefit greatly from it. Your work will be based on very solid ground.
  2. Knowledge of the field: You will show your supervisor and reviewers that you are aware of such rankings, that you have been citing credible marketing sources and that you are familiar with the main marketing authors in your field. In other words, it will be a great boost for your theoretical foundation. 

How to Access These Journals and Articles?

As you can see, most of the articles published on the journals are not free. Access to them is also not cheap. Universities pay an incredible amount of money to have access to such journals. So it really depends from institution to institution on what they have access to.

How can you find the article if it is not available for you? There are two most common ways:

  1. Contact the author (s) directly: Academics always appreciate when others are curious about their work (wouldn’t you also?). There is a big chance they will send you the paper or drafts of it.
  2. Search on Google Scholar: Interestingly, some papers that are paid for have PDF versions available for download on Google Scholar. I am not sure exactly the reasons why, but I find it great when it happens. 

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you are writing a marketing research paper or a thesis, make sure to use works from credible sources.

And remember: during the development of your research idea and theoretical foundation, there is NO BETTER WAY to do it than by reading and citing articles from highly ranked journals.

Hope this article has saved some time and has clarified some issues!

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