Quality analysis of journals in economics - quotation databases and impact factors in the online age

The appraisal of the quality of scientific research is important both for the scientific community and for the public. Despite all criticism a quantitative assessment is necessary. In science, quotations and the impact factor derived from them play an important role. This article presents three quotation databases and how they operate: the Web of Science, which contains the Social Science Citation Index, Google Scholar and RePEc. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of the impact factors, one of the most important measurements for scientific journals, are presented. With regard to economics, the RePEc network is certainly the most suitable forum for the assessment of (quantitative) measurements both for journals and for working-paper series. However, a complete inclusion of quotations has not yet been reached so that all figures must still be considered experimental.