Research in Islamic economics and finance : nature, quality, and measurement

Abstract EN

For any scientist both the quantity and quality of research are essential in his personal career building.

However, for any scientific discipline, the quality of research by the scholars belonging to that discipline is much more important.

The matter is of critical importance for emerging sciences such as Islamic economics.

It is good quality and innovative research by the proponents of new disciplines that gets them a distinct position in the scientific arena not mere aspirations and emotional slogan mongering.

There are attributes of good quality research.

However, setting objective standards for their measurement is not always straight forward.

Every discipline has its own unique features which must be kept in view while developing or applying such standards.

Several indicators are in vogue to measure the quality of research and the subsequent prestige and impact of individual scholars and journals.

In this paper we argue that the commonly-used indicators are unfair/unsuitable for the discipline of Islamic economics and finance in determining the prestige and impact of an individual scholar or journal.

What we call the ‘ISI Hype’ has done more harm than benefit for the research quality and trends in the discipline.

We attempt to prove our propositions by giving example from the reality on the ground.

Based on our findings, we propose some strategies to correct the situation