In this article, we examine the role of academic journals in the development of the field. In particular we focus on JEAH as an illustrative example of an academic journal that has, from the outset, reflected and portrayed intellectual developments in educational administration and history. We argue that academic journals, in effect, are one of the most visible and ostensibly powerful forms of knowledge production that can be a highly political and contested process. Moreover, attempts over the past few decades to utilise qualitative or quantitative measures to weigh and measure the (apparent) status and impact of academic journals serve to invoke ratings wars that can only rebound to the disadvantage of scholarship in discipline of education and the field of educational administration and history. (Contains 3 tables and 76 footnotes.)