Liang, LM (Liang, Liming); Rousseau, R (Rousseau, Ronald) Yield sequences as journal attractivity indicators: "payback times" for Science and Nature JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION, 64 (2): 229-245 2008

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: ronald.rousseau at khbo.be 

Author(s): Liang, LM (Liang, Liming); Rousseau, R (Rousseau, Ronald) 

Title: Yield sequences as journal attractivity indicators: "payback times" 
for Science and Nature 

Source: JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION, 64 (2): 229-245 2008 

Conclusion: 
The T indicator studied in this article is a simple indicator, trying to 
reflect part of the
“rhythm of science”. T describes an input-output relationship for knowledge
production and as such it reflects the attractivity of the item set under 
study. The
R-sequence, studied in earlier articles, and the T-sequences, studied 
here, can be used to
describe the evolutionary rhythm of science, or elements in a scientific 
production
process, from two different points of view. We believe that if it were 
feasible to obtain
the required data, it would become possible to demonstrate how science 
evolves in a
field, a country and even in the world as whole. We are aware though of 
the limitations
of our methodology for measuring the global rhythm of science. The main 
limitation of
our approach lies in the data collection. Even a database such as the Web 
of Science
can never cover all publications and citations. Therefore, we can never 
obtain all
citation data for an article, or an item set in general. Of course, this 
caveat also applies
to most other publication and citations studies based on the Web of 
Science. Maybe
however, in the near future, the evolution of the Internet and its search 
engines will
reduce this limitation. (Note though that we do not write “the open, 
freely available
Internet”, nor do we claim that this limitation will disappear, just “be 
reduced”.)
We can conclude from our investigations, though, that yield sequences make
dynamic aspects of a journal visible. The term dynamic aspects refers here 
to the
relation of the length of reference lists, and the amount of citations 
received.
Exceptional circumstances (in our case: the publication of Laemmli’s paper 
in 1970 in
the journal Nature) become clearly visible.
We have further studied factors affecting the yield indicators: the 
average number
of references per article, the citation distribution and the database used 
to collect
citations. We could ask, however, whether these three factors are 
independent. Does the
AR influences citation curves? Or, is it true that the bigger AR, the more 
the journal is
cited? The normalisation for database size just considered the quantity of 
source
journals in the database. One may wonder though if enlarging the database 
does not
influence the overall “quality” of source journals, and hence the shape of 
the citation
situation. That would mean that the factors “database size” and “citation 
distribution”
are not independent either.
Finally, we would like to mention the following question. We have observed 
that the
yield period of Science is getting shorter and shorter. Is there a minimum 
value for a
yield period? If there is, what is it? To answer this question, the citing 
behaviour of
authors, the publication period of the citing and cited journals, and the 
emergence of
more and more electronic journals should be taken into account. In the end 
the question
becomes: is it possible to receive L citations in one day, one hour, one 
minute? The
answer is “yes’ if L ¼ 1, but what about a more realistic situation?
Another question is whether this indicator is field-dependent? Or are 
fields in which
journals have on average a long reference list also those fields where 
articles are cited
more rapidly? The short table published by Moed and Garfield (2003) seems 
to indicate
this, as articles in high-impact fields such as Molecular Biology and 
Biochemistry have
on average a much longer reference list than articles in the

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Author Keywords: reference services; electronic journals; user studies; 
case studies 

Keywords Plus: RHYTHM 

Abstract: Purpose - The yield period of a journal is defined as the time 
needed to accumulate the same number of citations as the number of 
references included during the period of Study. Yield sequences are 
proposed as journal attractivity indicators describing dynamic 
characteristics of a journal. This paper aims to investigate their use.
Design/methodology/approach - As a case study the yield sequences of the 
journals Nature and Science from 1955 onward are determined. Similarities 
and dissimilarities between these sequences are discussed and factors 
affecting yield periods are determined.
Findings - The study finds that yield sequences make dynamic aspects of a 
journal visible, as reflected through citations. Exceptional circumstances 
(here the publication of Laemmli's paper in 1970 in the journal Nature) 
become Clearly Visible. The average number of references per article, the 
citation distribution and the size of the database used to collect 
citations are factors influencing yield sequences.
Originality/value - A new dynamic indicator for the study of journals is 
introduced. 

Addresses: [Liang, Liming; Rousseau, Ronald] Univ Antwerp, IBW, Antwerp, 
Belgium; [Rousseau, Ronald] KHBO Assoc, KU Leuven, IWT, Oostende, Belgium; 
[Liang, Liming] Henan Normal Univ, Inst Sci Technol & Soc, Xinxiang, 
Peoples R China 

Reprint Address: Rousseau, R, Univ Antwerp, IBW, Antwerp, Belgium. 

E-mail Address: ronald.rousseau at khbo.be 

Cited Reference Count: 15 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LIMITED 

Publisher Address: HOWARD HOUSE, WAGON LANE, BINGLEY BD16 1WA, W 
YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND 

ISSN: 0022-0418 

DOI: 10.1108/00220410810858038 

29-char Source Abbrev.: J DOC 

ISO Source Abbrev.: J. Doc. 

Source Item Page Count: 17 

Subject Category: Computer Science, Information Systems; Information 
Science & Library Science 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 341RY 

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