A review of studies on citations and journal ranking in finance.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review studies on ranking in finance journals, which have grown substantially in recent decades. Design/methodology/approach – This paper depicts the trend and development of ranking studies in finance area, describes the regional work and lists the studies which focus on specific journal. This paper discusses some important and possible issues of ranking studies in finance in the future and makes some conclusions. Findings – First, the authors find that the assessing method has changed from counting number to citation-based method. Second, the authors sort the ranking studies which focus on the research and publication quality based on regional area. Finally, in specific journal ranking studies, the authors can find how a journal reputation has changed, better or worse. Originality/value – This paper reviews the ranking studies in finance area and particularly focusses on three parts. Because of the importance of ranking studies in research quality assessing, a series of issues are raised to improve the assessing objectiveness of journal ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]