A fuzzy set approach to the evaluation of journal grades

Many universities, research institutions and government agencies are continuously attempting to grade or rank journals for their academic value. Such grading is needed for personnel decisions and for funding and resource allocation purposes. The grading of journals is dependent both on objective information, such as the impact ratios of the journals, and on subjective information, such as experts' judgments about the journals. Also, the available information for decision may be incomplete or imprecise due to the problem nature and complexity of the decision process. This paper proposes a fuzzy set approach that integrates objective and subjective information for evaluating grades of journals. It provides a comprehensive method for dealing with incomplete and imprecise information to support the whole evaluation process. A Web-based decision support system that is based on the proposed fuzzy set approach has been implemented. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.