Systems of surveillance and control: commentary on `An analysis of institutional contributors to three major academic tourism journals: 1992-2001'

The assessment of academic publishing performance has impliations not only for individuals and institutions, but also the development of tourism as a field of study. The article examines the ways in which academic journals are used and how this relates to scholarship and performance. The article notes some of the difficulties in citation analysis, questions what should be regarded as core quality tourism journals, and argues that citation analyses, without being linked to a broader understanding of the sociology of tourism knowledge, may be highly instrumental in character. The article concludes by questioning whether citation analyses are undertaken to actually contribute to understanding the development of a field and the knowledge networks which eventuate, or whether they represent a flawed attempt to develop `league tables' of performance.