Papers of possible interest to Sig Metrics readers
Eugene Garfield
eugene.garfield at THOMSONREUTERS.COM
Mon Aug 20 16:55:32 EDT 2012
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TITLE: Special Discussion Issue on Journal Impact Factors
(Editorial Material, English)
AUTHOR: Braun, T
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.207-208
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): GARFIELD E rauth;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972;
EDITORIAL doctype
AUTHOR ADDRESS: T Braun, Eotvos Lorand Univ, Inst Chem, Budapest, Hungary
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TITLE: Positive and negative aspects of citation indices and
journal impact factors (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Balaban, AT
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.241-247
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S):
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
CITATION item_title; CITATION* item_title;
IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972;
GARFIELD E CAN MED ASSOC J 161:979 1999
KEYWORDS: Citation indices; Hirsch index h for individual
scientists; Analogous journal-h index; Journal impact
factor (IF); Uses and misuses of IF; Weight factor of
citing author(s)
KEYWORDS+: HIRSCH-INDEX; SCIENCE
ABSTRACT: The Hirsch citation index h is nowadays the most
frequently used numerical indicator for the performance of scientists as
reflected in their output and in the reaction of the scientific community
reflected in citations of individual contributions. A few of the possible
improvements of h are briefly reviewed. Garfield's journal impact factor
(IF) characterizes the reaction of the scientific community to
publications in journals, reflected in citations of all papers published
in any given journal during the preceding 2 years, and normalized against
all citable articles during the same period. Again, a few of the possible
improvements or supplements of IF are briefly reviewed, including the
journal-h index proposed by Braun, Glanzel, and Schubert. Ascribing
higher weighting factors to citations of individual papers proportionally
to IF is considered to be a misuse of useful numerical indices based on
citations. At most, one could turn this argument on its head and one can
find reasons to ascribe an inverse proportionality relative to IF for
individual citations: if a paper is considered worthy to be cited even if
it was published in a low-IF journal, that citation ought to be worth
more than if the citation would have been from a higher-impact journal. A
weight factor reflecting the prestige of the citing author(s) may also be
considered.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: AT Balaban, Texas A&M Univ, 200 Seawolf Pkwy, Galveston, TX
77553 USA
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TITLE: Journal report card (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Bar-Ilan, J
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.249-260
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): JOURNAL item_title
KEYWORDS: Journal report card; Median; 90% percentile; Synchronous
h-index for journals
KEYWORDS+: IMPACT FACTORS; INDEX
ABSTRACT: The impact factor is one of the most used scientometric
indicators. Its proper and improper uses have been discussed extensively
before. It has been criticized extensively, yet it is still here. In this
paper I propose the journal report card, which is a set of measures, each
with an easily comprehensible meaning that provides a fuller picture of
the journals' standing. The set of measures in the report card include
the impact factor, the h-index, number of citations at different points
on the ranked list of citations, extent of uncitedness and coverage of
the h-core. The report card is computed for two sets of journals, the top-
20 journals in JCR 2010 and the top-20 journals in JCR 2010 for the
category Information and Library Science.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: J Bar-Ilan, Bar Ilan Univ, Dept Informat Sci, IL-52900
Ramat Gan, Israel
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TITLE: The impact factor: its place in Garfield's thought, in
science evaluation, and in library collection management (Article,
English)
AUTHOR: Bensman, SJ
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.263-275
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S):
GARFIELD E CURR CONTENTS :5 1973;
GARFIELD E CURRENT CONTENT 0710 :5 1978;
GARFIELD E SCIENTIST 5:11 1991;
GARFIELD E AM DOC 14:195 1963;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972;
GARFIELD E NATURE 264:609 1976
KEYWORDS: Impact factor; Citation analysis; Science evaluation;
Journal evaluation; Library collection management
KEYWORDS+: SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS; MARKET
ABSTRACT: This paper is a response to that of Vanclay, who
proposes, that since the impact factor (IF) is so seriously flawed,
Thomson Reuters should either correct the measure or-preferably-no longer
publish it and restrict itself to journal certification. It is argued
here that Vanclay's analysis is itself seriously flawed, because he
appears totally ignorant of the thought structure of Eugene Garfield,
IF's creator. As a result, Vanclay appears unaware of the importance of
total cites and the close connection of IF with review journals, where
the paradigms of science are defined. This paper's author agrees that IF
is a defective measure, analyzing its defects from the perspective of the
frequency theory of probability, on which modern inferential statistics
is based. However, he asserts that abandoning it would be
counterproductive because of its demonstrated ability-even with its
defects-to identify small important journals like review journals, giving
it an important role in science evaluation and library collection
management.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: SJ Bensman, Louisiana State Univ, LSU Lib, Baton Rouge, LA
70803 USA
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TITLE: What do the scientists think about the impact factor?
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Buela-Casal, G; Zych, I
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.281-292
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): GARFIELD E rauth; IMPACT FACTOR* item_title;
GARFIELD E INT MICROBIOL 10:65 2007;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 122:108 1955;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972;
GARFIELD E CAN MED ASSOC J 161:979 1999
KEYWORDS: Impact factor; Web of Science; Journal Citation Reports;
Quality
KEYWORDS+: SPANISH PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES; CITATION-INDEX;
INTERNATIONALITY INDEX; PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSORS; JOURNAL
ARTICLES; SCIENCE; WEB; PRODUCTIVITY; QUALITY; ASSOCIATION
ABSTRACT: The impact factor is a highly polemic metric. It was
designed to help scientists in searching for bibliographic references for
their own works, enabling communication among researchers and helping
librarians in deciding which journal they should purchase. Nevertheless,
it has soon become the most important measure of scientific performance
applied to journals, articles, scientists, universities, etc. Since then,
some researchers argue that it is a useless and flawed measure, while
others defend its utility. The current study is the first survey on the
opinion on the topic of a broad sample of scientists from all over the
world. The questionnaire was answered by 1,704 researchers from 86
different countries, all the continents and all the UNESCO major fields
of knowledge. The results show that the opinion is slightly above the
median which could be understood as "neither positive nor negative".
Surprisingly, there is a negative correlation between the number of
articles published by the respondents and their opinion on the impact
factor.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: I Zych, Univ Cordoba, Dept Psicol, Fac Ciencias Educ, Avda
San Alberto Magno S-N, E-14071 Cordoba, Spain
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TITLE: Some research ideas on Journal Impact Factors as a
crucial topic in science dynamics (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Campanario, J
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.293-295
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title
KEYWORDS: Impact factor; Research program; Science dynamics
ABSTRACT: In the interesting and provocative paper on Journal
Impact Factors by Vanclay (in press) there are some interesting points
worth further reflection. In this short commentary I will focus in those
that I consider most relevant because they suggest some ideas that could
be addressed by researchers interested in this topic.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: J Campanario, Univ Alcala De Henares, Dept Fis, Madrid
28871, Spain
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TITLE: The Impact Factor in non-English-speaking countries
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Gonzalez-Alcaide, G; Valderrama-Zurian, JC;
Aleixandre-Benavent, R
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.297-311
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
KEYWORDS: Journal Impact Factor; Language; Scientific literature;
Publishing
KEYWORDS+: GERMAN-LANGUAGE; SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION; JOURNALS;
SCIENCE; AUTHORS; INTERNATIONALIZATION; PUBLICATION;
CITATIONS; ARTICLES; MEDICINE
ABSTRACT: The representativeness of the ISI-Thomson Impact Factor
rankings and the existing relationship between countries' national
languages and the diffusion of scientific publications is analyzed. We
discuss literature on the Impact Factor related to language use,
publication strategies for authors and editors from non-English-speaking
countries, the effects of the inclusion of a new journal in the ISI-
Thomson databases and the scientific policies articulated in some non-
English-speaking countries. The adoption of the Impact Factor as the
valuation criterion for scientific activities has favoured the
consolidation of English language journals in the diffusion of scientific
knowledge. The vernacular languages only conserve part of their
importance in certain disciplines, such as Clinical Medicine or Social
Sciences and Humanities. The Impact Factor, invented over 50 years ago
now, could be a limitation for non-English authors and scientific
journals, and does not consider some widely used practices among the
scientific community concerning the development of Internet as a means
for the diffusion of knowledge.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: G Gonzalez-Alcaide, Univ Valencia, Dept Hist Ciencia &
Documentac, Valencia, Spain
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TITLE: To cite or not to cite: author self-citations and the
impact factor (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Hartley, J
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.313-317
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): CITATION* item_title; IMPACT FACTOR* item_title
KEYWORDS: Co-authors; Impact factors; Reference lists; Author self-
citation; Journal self-citation
KEYWORDS+: ARTICLES; MACRO
ABSTRACT: Author self-citations are another factor that affects the
impact factor of a journal. Typically these self-citations are just
counted as such. But to be more meaningful I suggest that when examining
the contribution of authors' self-citations to impact factors one should
first count the number of citations in the text rather than in the
reference list, and then discriminate between different kinds of author
self-citations-from those that are informative to those that are self-
enhancing-if these data are to be more credible.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: J Hartley, Keele Univ, Sch Psychol, Keele, Staffs, England
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TITLE: The pragmatics of a diachronic journal impact factor
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Ingwersen, P
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.319-324
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title
KEYWORDS: Journal impact factor; Diachronic impact factor;
Synchronous JIF
ABSTRACT: With reference to Vanclay (Scientometrics in press, 2012)
the paper argues for a pragmatic approach to the Thomson-Reuter's journal
impact factor. The paper proposes and discusses to replace the current
synchronous Thomson-Reuter journal impact factor by an up-to-date
diachronic version (DJIF), consisting of a three-year citation window
over a one year publication window. The DJIF online data collection and
calculation is exemplified and compared to the present synchronous
journal impact factor. The paper discusses briefly the dimensions of
currency, robustness, understandability and comparability to other impact
factors used in research evaluation.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: P Ingwersen, Univ Carlos III Madrid, Dept Lib Sci &
Documentat, Calle Madrid 126, Madrid 28903, Spain
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TITLE: Grim tales about the impact factor and the h-index in the
Web of Science and the Journal Citation Reports databases: reflections on
Vanclay's criticism (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Jacso, P
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.325-354
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): GARFIELD E rauth; PENDLEBURY DA rauth;
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
CITATION item_title; CITATION* item_title;
IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E BRIT MED J 313:411 1996;
GARFIELD E CAN MED ASSOC J 161:979 1999;
PUDOVKIN AI P ASIST ANNU 41:507 2004
KEYWORDS: Journal impact factors; Journal Citation Reports; h-index;
Web of Science; Google Scholar; Research assessment
KEYWORDS+: GOOGLE SCHOLAR; SCIENTOMETRIC INDICATORS; SCIENTIFIC
PUBLICATIONS; CITED REFERENCES; SCOPUS; RANKINGS; CONS;
PROS; PRODUCTIVITY; MANIPULATION
ABSTRACT: This paper reflects on the most current and some of the
recent contributions of JK Vanclay, focusing on his methods, findings,
and criticism about the journal citations reports and the web of science
databases, the journal impact factor and the h-index. It is argued and
demonstrated that some of the recent papers of the author about
scientometric issues, measures and sources show so much demagoguery,
ignorance and arrogance, have so much prejudice and bias, so profound
errors in using the databases, calculating metrics, and interpreting
search results that the papers are very unlikely to be meant as a genuine
contribution from an academic who is a graduate of-among others-Oxford
University, professor and dean in a respected university, a well-
published and well-cited author and a recipient of the Queen's Award (all
the above in forest science). The papers are much more likely to serve as
props for a staged, mock-up scenario based on slipshod research in an
experiment, to illustrate the deficiencies in the processes and in the
assessment of scholarly publishing productivity and impact in order to
present the idealized solution of Vanclay: using the h-index, portrayed
as the Prince, mounted on the shoulder of the White Horse, Google Scholar.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: P Jacso, Univ Hawaii, Dept Informat & Comp Sci, Honolulu,
HI 96822 USA
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TITLE: Alternatives to the journal impact factor: I3 and the top-
10% (or top-25%?) of the most-highly cited papers (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Leydesdorff, L
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.355-365
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): PRICE DJD rauth;
SEGLEN PO J AM SOC INFORM SCI 43:628 1992;
CITED item_title; IMPACT FACTOR* item_title;
JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENTOMETRICS 1:359 1979;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972
KEYWORDS: Nonparametric; Source normalization; Citation; Journal;
Impact
KEYWORDS+: CITATION ANALYSIS; RESEARCH PERFORMANCE; SCIENTIFIC
JOURNALS; RELATIVE INDICATORS; SCIENCE; FIELDS; CHARTS;
TERMS; MAPS; TIME
ABSTRACT: Journal impact factors (IFs) can be considered
historically as the first attempt to normalize citation distributions by
using averages over 2 years. However, it has been recognized that
citation distributions vary among fields of science and that one needs to
normalize for this. Furthermore, the mean-or any central-tendency
statistics-is not a good representation of the citation distribution
because these distributions are skewed. Important steps have been taken
to solve these two problems during the last few years. First, one can
normalize at the article level using the citing audience as the reference
set. Second, one can use non-parametric statistics for testing the
significance of differences among ratings. A proportion of most-highly
cited papers (the top-10% or top-quartile) on the basis of fractional
counting of the citations may provide an alternative to the current IF.
This indicator is intuitively simple, allows for statistical testing, and
accords with the state of the art.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: L Leydesdorff, Univ Amsterdam, Amsterdam Sch Commun Res
ASCoR, Kloveniersbugwal 48, NL-1012 CX Amsterdam,
Netherlands
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TITLE: Citation-based metrics are appropriate tools in journal
assessment provided that they are accurate and used in an informed way
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Moed, HF; Colledge, L; Reedijk, J; Moya-Anegon, F;
Guerrero-Bote, V; Plume, A; Amin, M
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.367-376
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S):
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
CITATION item_title; CITATION* item_title;
JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E BRIT MED J 313:411 1996;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 144:649 1964
KEYWORDS: Journal metrics; Journal performance; Journal impact
factor; SNIP; SJR; Citation analysis; Citation linking;
Peer review; Crosscheck; Journal editors; Journal
publishers
KEYWORDS+: IMPACT FACTORS; INFORMATION; OUTPUT; INDEX
ABSTRACT: In a reply to Jerome K. Vanclay's manuscript "Impact
Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?" we
discuss the value of journal metrics for the assessment of scientific-
scholarly journals from a general bibliometric perspective, and from the
point of view of creators of new journal metrics, journal editors and
publishers. We conclude that citation-based indicators of journal
performance are appropriate tools in journal assessment provided that
they are accurate, and used with care and competence.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: HF Moed, SciVal, Elsevier, Radarweg 29, NL-1043 NX
Amsterdam, Netherlands
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TITLE: The generalized propensity score methodology for
estimating unbiased journal impact factors (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Mutz, R; Daniel, HD
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.377-390
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): GARFIELD E rauth; IMPACT FACTOR* item_title;
JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 122:108 1955;
GARFIELD E CAN MED ASSOC J 161:979 1999
KEYWORDS: Journal impact factor; Causal inference; Generalized
propensity score; Rubin Causal Model
KEYWORDS+: CAUSAL INFERENCE; SUBCLASSIFICATION; SCIENCE; BIAS;
PUBLICATION; DESIGN
ABSTRACT: The journal impact factor (JIF) proposed by Garfield in
the year 1955 is one of the most commonly used and prominent citation-
based indicators of the performance and significance of a scientific
journal. The JIF is simple, reasonable, clearly defined, and comparable
over time and, what is more, can be easily calculated from data provided
by Thomson Reuters, but at the expense of serious technical and
methodological flaws. The paper discusses one of the core problems: The
JIF is affected by bias factors (e.g., document type) that have nothing
to do with the prestige or quality of a journal. For solving this
problem, we suggest using the generalized propensity score methodology
based on the Rubin Causal Model. Citation data for papers of all journals
in the ISI subject category "Microscopy" (Journal Citation Report) are
used to illustrate the proposal.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: R Mutz, Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Muehlegasse 21, CH-8001
Zurich, Switzerland
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TITLE: Decades of progress, or the progress of decades?
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Narin, F
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.391-393
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): GARFIELD E rauth;
KEYWORDS: Journal impact factor; Science policy; Validation
ABSTRACT: In the almost 40 years since we wrote Evaluative
bibliometrics enormous advances have been made in data availability and
analytic technique. The journal impact factor of the 1960s has clearly
not kept up with the state of the art. However, for both old and new
indicators, basic validity and relevance issues remain, such as by what
standard can we validate our results, and what external use can
appropriately be made of them? As funding support becomes more difficult,
we should not lose sight of the necessity to again demonstrate the
importance of our research, and must keep in mind that it is the
relevance of our results that count, not the elegance of our mathematics.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: F Narin, 2075 Mt City St, Henderson, NV 89052 USA
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TITLE: Comments on a critique of the Thomson Reuters journal
impact factor (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Pendlebury, DA; Adams, J
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.395-401
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): PENDLEBURY DA rauth;
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 122:108 1955;
GARFIELD E AM DOC 14:195 1963;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972;
GARFIELD E NATURE 264:609 1976
KEYWORDS: 'Journal impact factor; Impact factor; Journal citation
reports; Citation analysis; Scientific journals; Citation
indicators; Bibliometrics; Influence measures; Criticism;
Research evaluation
KEYWORDS+: CITATION; SCIENCE; INDICATORS; UK
ABSTRACT: We discuss research evaluation, the nature of impact, and
the use of the Thomson Reuters journal impact factor and other indicators
in scientometrics in the light of recent commentary.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: J Adams, Thomson Reuters, 103 Clarendon Rd, Leeds LS2 9DF,
W Yorkshire, England
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TITLE: Evaluating journal performance metrics (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Prathap, G
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.403-408
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): PENDLEBURY DA rauth;
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 122:108 1955;
GARFIELD E CAN MED ASSOC J 161:979 1999
KEYWORDS: Bibliometrics; Journal evaluation; Journal impact factor;
h-Index; g-Index; p-Index; Performance; Indicators;
Quality; Quantity; Citation; Exergy
KEYWORDS+: INDEX
ABSTRACT: Journals have been ranked on the basis of impact factors
for a long time. This is a quality indicator, and often favours review
journals with few articles. Integrated impact indicators try to factor in
size (quantity) as well, and are correlated with total number of
citations. The total number of papers in a portfolio can be considered a
zeroth order performance indicator and the total number of citations a
first order performance indicator. Indicators like the h-Index and the g-
Index are actually performance indicators in that they integrate both
quality and quantity assessment into a single number. The p-Index is
another variant of this class of performance indicators and is based on
the cubic root of a second order performance indicator called the exergy
indicator. The Eigenfactor score and article influence are respectively
first order quantity and quality indicators. In this paper, we confirm
the above relationships.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: G Prathap, CSIR Natl Inst Sci Commun & Informat Resources,
New Delhi 110012, India
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TITLE: Rank normalization of impact factors will resolve
Vanclay's dilemma with TRIF Comments on the paper by Jerome Vanclay
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Pudovkin, AI; Garfield, E
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.409-412
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): IMPACT FACTOR* item_title;
PUDOVKIN AI P ASIST ANNU 41:507 2004;
GARFIELD E primaryauthor,author
KEYWORDS: Impact factor; JCR; Rank-normalized impact factor
ABSTRACT: The ThomsonReuters impact factor is a viable, widely used
and informative measure of journal visibility and frequency of use. It is
accurate, transparent and easy to use. It is a live and evolving system,
that can broaden its scope and implement new features and methods. Some
of Vanclay's suggestions, like wider use of order statistics, or our
suggestion of rank normalization might be implemented by JCR in the
future.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: E Garfield, ThomsonReuters Profess, 1500 Spring Garden St,
Philadelphia, PA 19130 USA
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TITLE: Updating the journal impact factor or total overhaul?
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Rousseau, R
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.413-417
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): PENDLEBURY DA rauth;
SEGLEN PO J AM SOC INFORM SCI 45:1 1994;
IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E UNFALLCHIRURG 101:413 1998
KEYWORDS: Journal impact factor; Instrument
ABSTRACT: Vanclay's proposal (Vanclay (2012). Impact factor:
outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?
Scientometrics doi: 10.1007/s11192-011-0561-0) is discussed. We agree
that a major overhaul is necessary: journal evaluation must be performed
using instruments and not artefacts.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: R Rousseau, KHBO Assoc KU Leuven, Fac Engn Technol, Zeedijk
101, B-8400 Oostende, Belgium
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TITLE: Impact factors, scientometrics and the history of
citation-based research (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Smith, DR
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.419-427
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): CAWKELL A* rauth;
PRICE DJD rauth;
ADAIR WC AM DOC 6:31 1955;
GROSS PLK SCIENCE 66:385 1927;
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
SCIENTOMETRIC* item_title; CITATION item_title;
CITATION* item_title; IMPACT FACTOR* item_title;
GARFIELD E INT MICROBIOL 10:65 2007;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 122:108 1955;
GARFIELD E ANN INTERN MED 105:313 1986;
GARFIELD E NATURE 227:669 1970;
GARFIELD E CAN MED ASSOC J 161:979 1999
KEYWORDS: Impact factor; History; Bibliometrics; Scientometrics;
Citation indexing
KEYWORDS+: JOURNAL IMPACT; OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH; SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS;
CORE JOURNALS; FACTOR TRENDS; NURSING SCHOLARSHIP;
SCIENCE; BIBLIOMETRICS; ERGONOMICS; INDEXES
ABSTRACT: Few contemporary inventions have influenced academic
publishing as much as journal impact factors. On the other hand, debates
and discussion on the potential limitations of, and appropriate uses for,
journal performance indicators are almost as long as the history of the
measures themselves. Given that scientometrics is often undertaken using
bibliometric techniques, the history of the former is inextricably linked
to the latter. As with any controversy it is difficult to separate an
invention from its history, and for these reasons, the current article
provides an overview of some key historical events of relevance to the
impact factor. When he first proposed the concept over half a century
ago, Garfield did not realise that impact factors would one day become
the subject of such widespread controversy. As the current Special Issue
of Scientometrics suggests, this debate continues today.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: DR Smith, Univ Newcastle, Sch Hlth Sci, Fac Hlth, Ourimbah,
NSW 2258, Australia
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TITLE: Journal impact evaluation: a webometric perspective
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Thelwall, M
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.429-441
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): MERTON RK rauth;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972
KEYWORDS+: GOOGLE SCHOLAR; WEB SITES; SCIENTIFIC IMPACT; CITATION
ANALYSIS; SCIENCE; LINKS; COUNTS; INFORMATION; PATTERNS;
METRICS
ABSTRACT: In theory, the web has the potential to provide
information about the wider impact of academic research, beyond
traditional scholarly impact. This is because the web can reflect non-
scholarly uses of research, such as in online government documents, press
coverage or public discussions. Nevertheless, there are practical
problems with creating metrics for journals based on web data:
principally that most such metrics should be easy for journal editors or
publishers to manipulate. Nevertheless, two alternatives seem to have
both promise and value: citations derived from digitised books and
download counts for journals within specific delivery platforms.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: M Thelwall, Wolverhampton Univ, Stat Cybermetr Res Grp, Sch
Technol, Wulfruna St, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, W Midlands,
England
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TITLE: Discussing some basic critique on Journal Impact Factors:
revision of earlier comments (Article, English)
AUTHOR: van Leeuwen, T
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.443-455
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): GARFIELD E rauth;
KEYWORDS: Journal Impact Factor; Length of citation windows;
Document types; Journal Subject Categories
KEYWORDS+: INFORMATION IMPACT; RESEARCH-INSTITUTE; SYSTEM
ABSTRACT: In this study the issue of the validity of the argument
against the applied length of citation windows in Journal Impact Factors
calculations is critically re-analyzed. While previous studies argued
against the relatively short citation window of 1-2 years, this study
shows that the relative short term citation impact measured in the window
underlying the Journal Impact Factor is a good predictor of the citation
impact of the journals in the next years to come. Possible exceptions to
this observation relate to journals with relatively low numbers of
publications, and the citation impact related to publications in the year
of publication. The study focuses on five Journal Subject Categories from
the science and social sciences, on normal articles published in these
journals, in the 2 years 2000 and 2004.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: T van Leeuwen, Leiden Univ, CWTS, Wassenaarseweg 62A,POB
905, NL-2300 AX Leiden, Netherlands
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TITLE: Properties of journal impact in relation to bibliometric
research group performance indicators (Article, English)
AUTHOR: van Raan, AFJ
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.457-469
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): SEGLEN PO J AM SOC INFORM SCI 45:1 1994;
SEGLEN PO J AM SOC INFORM SCI 43:628 1992;
BIBLIOMETR*
KEYWORDS: Impact factor; Journal impact; Bibliometric analysis;
Research group performance
KEYWORDS+: AUTHOR SELF-CITATIONS; SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION;
STATISTICAL PROPERTIES; SCIENCE SYSTEM; DISTRIBUTIONS;
COMPETITION; MACRO
ABSTRACT: In this paper we present a compilation of journal impact
properties in relation to other bibliometric indicators as found in our
earlier studies together with new results. We argue that journal impact,
even calculated in a sufficiently advanced way, becomes important in
evaluation practices based on bibliometric analysis only at an aggregate
level. In the relation between average journal impact and actual citation
impact of groups, the influence of research performance is substantial.
Top-performance as well as lower performance groups publish in more or
less the same range of journal impact values, but top-performance groups
are, on average, more successful in the entire range of journal impact.
We find that for the high field citation-density groups a larger size
implies a lower average journal impact. For groups in the low field
citation-density regions however a larger size implies a considerably
higher average journal impact. Finally, we found that top-performance
groups have relatively less self-citations than the lower performance
groups and this fraction is decreasing with journal impact.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: AFJ van Raan, Leiden Univ, Ctr Sci & Technol Studies,
Wassenaarseweg 52,POB 9555, NL-2300 RB Leiden, Netherlands
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TITLE: The Garfield impact factor, one of the fundamental
indicators in scientometrics (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Vinkler, P
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.471-483
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S):
HIRSCH JE P NATL ACAD SCI USA 102:16569 2005;
SEGLEN PO J AM SOC INFORM SCI 43:628 1992;
GARFIELD E AM DOC 14:195 1963
KEYWORDS: Garfield impact factor; h-core; pi(v)-core; pi(v)-rate; A-
index; CDS-index
KEYWORDS+: HIGHLY CITED PAPERS; H-INDEX; PUBLICATIONS; JOURNALS
ABSTRACT: The paper summarizes some basic features of the Garfield
impact factor (GF). Accordingly, GF should be regarded as a scientometric
indicator representing the relative contribution of journals to the total
impact of information in a field. For calculating GF, both from
theoretical and practical reasons the "ratio of the sums" method is
recommended over the "mean of the ratios" method. Scientific advances are
made by the most influential, presumably most frequently cited articles.
The distribution of citations among the publications is skewed in
journals. Consequently, the GF index will be influenced primarily by the
highly cited papers. It follows, GF represents the most valuable part of
the information in journals quantitatively, and even therefore it may be
regarded as a reliable impact indicator.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: P Vinkler, Hungarian Acad Sci, Res Ctr Nat Sci, POB 17,
H-1525 Budapest, Hungary
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TITLE: The journal impact factor: angel, devil, or scapegoat? A
comment on J.K. Vanclay's article 2011 (Article, English)
AUTHOR: Zitt, M
SOURCE: SCIENTOMETRICS 92 (2 SP ISS). AUG 2012. p.485-503
SPRINGER, DORDRECHT
SEARCH TERM(S): MERTON RK rauth; PRICE DJD rauth;
SEGLEN PO J AM SOC INFORM SCI 43:628 1992;
SMALL H SCIENTOMETRICS 7:391 1985;
IMPACT FACTOR* item_title; JOURNAL item_title;
GARFIELD E JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC 295:90 2006;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 122:108 1955;
GARFIELD E AM DOC 14:195 1963;
GARFIELD E SCIENCE 178:471 1972
KEYWORDS: Bibliometric measures; Impact factor; Impact factor
limitations; Field-normalized impact-factor; Citation
behavior; Citation normalization; Citing-side
normalization; Source-level normalization
KEYWORDS+: H-INDEX; CITATION ANALYSIS; NORMALIZED IMPACT; RELATIVE
IMPACT; SCIENCE; INDICATORS; PUBLICATION; DOCUMENTATION;
METHODOLOGY; PERFORMANCE
ABSTRACT: J.K. Vanclay's article is a bold attempt to review recent
works on the journal impact factor (JIF) and to call for alternative
certifications of journals. The too broad scope did not allow the author
to fulfill all his purposes. Attempting after many others to organize the
various forms of criticism, with targets often broader than the JIF, we
shall try to comment on a few points. This will hopefully enable us to
infer in which cases the JIF is an angel, a devil, or a scapegoat. We
shall also expand on a crucial question that Vanclay could not really
develop in the reduced article format: the field-normalization. After a
short recall on classical cited-side or ex post normalization and of the
powerful influence measures, we will devote some attention to the novel
way of citing-side or ex ante normalization, not only for its own
interest, but because it directly proceeds from the disassembling of the
JIF clockwork.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: M Zitt, INRA Lereco SAE2 U1134, Rue Geraudiere,BP 71627,
F-44316 Nantes 03, France
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TITLE: (INTER)NATIONAL ORIENTATION OF CROATIAN SOCIAL SCIENCES
AND ARTS AND HUMANITIES JOURNALS INDEXED IN THE WEB OF SCIENCE DATABASE
(Article, English)
AUTHOR: Macan, B; Pikic, A; Mayer, M
SOURCE: DRUSTVENA ISTRAZIVANJA 21 (2). APR-JUN 2012. p.505-521
INST OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IVO PILAR, ZAGREB
KEYWORDS: bibliometrics; journals; Croatia; social sciences; arts &
humanities
KEYWORDS+: CITATION; LANGUAGE
ABSTRACT: After the beginning of the year 2007, the number of
Croatian scientific journals indexed in the WoS database has rapidly
increased, and among them the number of Croatian social sciences (SS) and
arts and humanities (A&H) journals as well. In this paper, the
(inter)national orientation of Croatian SS and A&H journals indexed in
the period 2008-2010 in WoS was analyzed. The analysis was conducted via
language of the journal title and published papers, national distribution
of authors and co-authorship structure, as well as via the INO indicator.
SS journals were divided into those related to medicine and health (SSM)
and other SS journals (SSO), while A&H journals were observed as one
group (AH). Croatian SSM journals are the most internationally oriented
according to all indicators, while the SSO journals have the strongest
national orientation. Howevper, all three analyzed groups of journals are
still the most attractive first for Croatian authors, and then to authors
from the region (SSO, SSM) and top 20 countries in the world's science
(AH).
AUTHOR ADDRESS: B Macan, Rudjer Boskovic Inst, Bijenicka Cesta 54, Zagreb
10000, Croatia
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TITLE: COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FIVE SPORT SCIENCE JOURNALS INDEXED
IN WoS (Article, Spanish)
AUTHOR: Villamon, M; Job, I; Valcarcel, JV; Devis-Devis, J
SOURCE: REVISTA DE PSICOLOGIA DEL DEPORTE 21 (2). 2012.
p.281-287 UNIV ILLES BALEARS, PALMA
KEYWORDS: Scientific journals; Sport sciences; Web of science;
Quality; Evaluation
KEYWORDS+: SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS; IMPACT FACTOR
ABSTRACT: The inclusion of journals in the Web of Science is an
important recognition for their scientific communities, but editors have
to continue to improve their quality, this is the reason why this study
evaluates five Brazilian and Spanish journals of Sport Sciences through a
comparison of 15 indicators of transparency, editorial management,
visibility and internationalization. The results show the need to broaden
their information, the agility of their editorial processes to reduce the
time between submission and publication of articles, and improve their
impact factor. Among the editorial strategies to increase their
excellence, we propose the following: emphasize the internationalization
of authorship, moderating the amount of self-citations, increase
circulation via social networks and incorporate other value added
services.
AUTHOR ADDRESS: M Villamon, Univ Valencia, Dpto Educ Fis & Deport, C Gasco
Oliag 3, Valencia 46010, Spain
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