UA Supply Chain Management, Logistics Program Ranks High in Research Productivity

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A just-published paper examining author affiliation in supply chain management and logistics ranks The University of Alabama’s program ninth in each of two of the top journals in the field, the Journal of Business Logistics and the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management.

“It is a ranking of research productivity in the area of supply chain management and logistics,” said Dr. Glenn Richey, associate professor of marketing. “It has been published every year since analysis started in 1967.”

The paper also says the UA program represents the 10^th most productive overall research school world-wide in supply chain management and logistics.

Richey said the contributors to the publications were himself, Dr. Alex Ellinger, associate professor of marketing and supply chain management; Dr. Charles Sox, professor and University Chair of Management Science and Manufacturing Management, and several doctoral students.

“It is quite an amazing result considering we are such a small group going up against full supply chain management and logistics departments,” Richey said.

The eight -year-old program has made a name for itself quickly. A study released in 2009 in Transportation Journal ranked the UA supply chain management and logistics faculty seventh in the world in the number of articles published in logistics, supply chain management and transportation journals for the period 2005 through 2007.

The faculty ranked first in the number of articles appearing in the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management and third most productive in articles appearing in the Journal of Business Logistics.

In addition, Richey, in 2010, and Ellinger, in 2002, are each recent recipients of The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ Bernard J. La Londe Best Paper Award, for the most valuable paper published in the Journal of Business Logistics.