FW: [CHMINF-L] professional associations and impact factors

[Loet Leydesdorff]

Dear colleagues,

My measures for local citation impact provide (since 2004) values both
before and after correction for "within-journal (self-)citation". The
vertical axis of the node corresponds with the total number of citations and
the horizontal one with the total number after these corrections. The
corresponding numerical values indicate the percentages. (The measures can
be found for the ISI-set at http://www.leydesdorff.net/jcr04 and for the
Chinese set at http://www.leydesdorff.net/istic04.)

Something similar can easily be done with impact factors. One can calculate
impact factors after within-journal citations from the JCR
straightforwardly. Perhaps, someone has already done this? Within-journal
citations are not meaningless: for example, Scientometrics has a high rate
of within-journal citations. It may mean that a community is forming a
strong clique around a journal.

With best wishes,


Loet

________________________________

Loet Leydesdorff
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/



> -----Original Message-----
> From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics
> [mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of Eugene Garfield
> Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 8:04 PM
> To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
> Subject: [SIGMETRICS] FW: [CHMINF-L] professional
> associations and impact factors
>
> Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
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> For those of you who do not subscribe to CHMINF-L this
> communication by Brian Simboli may be of interest. EG
>
> When responding, please attach my original message
> __________________________________________________
> Eugene Garfield, PhD. email:  garfield at codex.cis.upenn.edu
> home page: www.eugenegarfield.org
> Tel: 215-243-2205 Fax 215-387-1266
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CHEMICAL INFORMATION SOURCES DISCUSSION LIST
> [mailto:CHMINF-L at LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU] On Behalf Of Brian Simboli
> Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 1:58 PM
> To: CHMINF-L at LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU
> Subject: [CHMINF-L] professional associations and impact factors
>
> Some reflections in the wake of the 6/5/06 WSJ article
> relating to impact factors etc. ("Science Journals Artfully
> Try to Boost Their Rankings" by Sharon Begley).
> (Incidentally, I posted another version of following to liblicense-l.)
>
> Given the oft-discussed potential abuses posed by, or
> problems inherent in, use of impact factors, perhaps
> professional associations (e.g., AMS and ACS) should play a
> significant role in providing guidelines for their members
> suggesting appropriate uses of them? Might they play a role
> in suggesting journal editorial guidelines to avoid abuses?
> If it is true that the shape of science is being influenced
> by their use (e.g., in relation to editorial policies and
> tenure decisions), it seems
>
> as if the associations have a vested interest in how impact
> factors are being used.
>
> Also, might associations work on creating discipline-specific
> metrics (including impact factors), based on data within
> databases for their disciplines (e.g., MathSciNet, or CAS)?
> Of course this is not an argument that ISI data should not
> also be used, just that a clearer or more comprehensive
> picture of things can be obtained by supplementing it
>
> with a variety of metrics from various sources.
>
> Perhaps these measures would help address potential problems
> in use of the factors?
>
> Finally, the question how Google Scholar and other publicly
> accessible citation count sources should be used is also
> something that professional associations could study.
>
>
> --
> Brian Simboli
> Science Librarian
> Library & Technology Services
> E.W. Fairchild Martindale
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