ABS:Wormell, Internationality of internat. journals

[Gretchen Whitney]

Author(s):  Wormell I
Title:  Informetric analysis of the international impact of scientific
journals: How 'international' are the international journals?
Source:  JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION 1998, Vol 54, Iss 5, pp 584-605
Addresses:  Wormell I, Royal Sch Lib & Informat Sci, Birketinget 6,
DK-2300
Copenhagen S, Denmark.
Royal Sch Lib & Informat Sci, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark.

KeywordsPlus:  CITATION ANALYSIS

Abstract:  By developing a methodology for on-line citation analysis, the
international characteristics of scientific journals have been analysed on
the basis of correlations between the geographical distribution patterns
of authors, citations and subscriptions. The study covered seven selected
LIS journals. Assuming that the numbers of authors and citations in each
geographical region follow the Poisson distribution, the hypothesis was
tested, that the intensities are proportional to the subscriptions. In
most cases the correlation between authors and citations was so positive
that the international visibility and impact of the scientific journals
can be defined by these two variables. As regards the distribution pattern
of subscribers, authors and citations, however, the test showed very weak
or no correlations. The analysis of the statistical significance of
differences gave some useful data, the importance of which to marketing
and publishing strategies is obvious. The paper suggests examining also
the knowledge export of journals as an additional criterion for the
evaluation of their impact, and the quality of research published in them.
The comparison of Journal Impact Factors (JIF) is another contribution of
this study, aimed to enhance the use of impact factor analysis with
various time intervals. We demonstrate new and flexible ways of using the
JIF for diachronous and synchronous analyses. The study brings new
dimensions to the discussions bf the impact, status and image of
scientific journals. It focuses on the utilisation of informetric analysis
to go beyond the simplistic use of the JIF and to get a deeper
understanding of the 'real' impact of international scientific journals
and their market.

Source item page count:  22
Publication Date:  DEC
IDS No.:  150QL
29-char source abbrev:  J DOC


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Gretchen Whitney, PhD                                     tel 423.974.7919
School of Information Sciences                            fax 423.974.4967
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           gwhitney at utk.edu
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
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