Citation ranking versus expert judgment in evaluating communication scholars: Effects of research specialty size and individual prominence

Numerous attempts have been made to validate the use of citation as an evaluation method by comparing it with peer review. Unlike past studies using journals, research articles or universities as the subject matter, the present study extends the comparison to the ranking of individual scholars. Results show that citation ranking and expert judgment of communication scholars are highly correlated. The citation method and the expert judgment method are found to work better in smaller research areas and yield more valid evaluation results for more prominent scholars.