IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v78y2009i2d10.1007_s11192-008-2166-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The multi-dimensionality of journal impact

Author

Listed:
  • Wolfgang Glänzel

    (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
    Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

In recent studies the issue of the relatedness between journal impact factors and other measures of journal impact have been raised and discussed from both merely empirical and theoretical perspectives. Models of the underlying citation processes suggest distributions with two or more free parameters. Proceeding from the relation between the journals’ mean citation rate and uncitedness and the assumption of an underlying Generalised Waring Distribution (GWD) model, it is found that the journal impact factor alone does not sufficiently describe a journal’s citation impact, while a two-parameter solution appropriately reflects its main characteristics. For the analysis of highly cited publications an additional model derived from the same GWD is suggested. This approach results in robust, comprehensible and interpretable solutions that can readily be applied in evaluative bibliometrics.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfgang Glänzel, 2009. "The multi-dimensionality of journal impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 78(2), pages 355-374, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:78:y:2009:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-008-2166-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-008-2166-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-008-2166-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-008-2166-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quentin L. Burrell, 2005. "The use of the generalized Waring process in modelling informetric data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 64(3), pages 247-270, August.
    2. E. Garfield & I. H. Sher, 1963. "New factors in the evaluation of scientific literature through citation indexing," American Documentation, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 195-201, July.
    3. Leo Egghe, 2008. "The mathematical relation between the impact factor and the uncitedness factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 76(1), pages 117-123, July.
    4. Wolfgang Glänzel & Henk F. Moed, 2002. "Journal impact measures in bibliometric research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 53(2), pages 171-193, February.
    5. Panaretos, John & Xekalaki, Evdokia, 1986. "The stuttering generalized waring distribution," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 4(6), pages 313-318, October.
    6. Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2003. "A new classification scheme of science fields and subfields designed for scientometric evaluation purposes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(3), pages 357-367, March.
    7. Thed N. van Leeuwen & Henk F. Moed, 2005. "Characteristics of journal impact factors: The effects of uncitedness and citation distribution on the understanding of journal impact factors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(2), pages 357-371, April.
    8. Telcs, A. & Glanzel, W. & Schubert, A., 1985. "Characterization and statistical test using truncated expectations for a class of skew distributions," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 169-178, October.
    9. H. F. Moed & Th. N. Leeuwen & J. Reedijk, 1999. "Towards appropriate indicators of journal impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 46(3), pages 575-589, November.
    10. Schubert, András & Glänzel, Wolfgang, 2007. "A systematic analysis of Hirsch-type indices for journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 179-184.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David I. Stern, 2013. "Uncertainty Measures for Economics Journal Impact Factors," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 173-189, March.
    2. Waltman, L. & van Eck, N.J.P., 2009. "Some Comments on Egghe’s Derivation of the Impact Factor Distribution," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-016-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    3. Henk F. Moed, 2016. "Comprehensive indicator comparisons intelligible to non-experts: the case of two SNIP versions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(1), pages 51-65, January.
    4. Moed, Henk F., 2010. "Measuring contextual citation impact of scientific journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 265-277.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    2. Wolfgang Glänzel & Henk F. Moed, 2013. "Opinion paper: thoughts and facts on bibliometric indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 381-394, July.
    3. Mingkun Wei, 2020. "Research on impact evaluation of open access journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 1027-1049, February.
    4. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    5. Lin Zhang & Wolfgang Glänzel & Liming Liang, 2009. "Tracing the role of individual journals in a cross-citation network based on different indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 821-838, December.
    6. Ziqiang Zeng & Lantian Shi, 2021. "A two-dimensional journal classification method based on output and input factors: perspectives from citation and authorship related indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 3929-3964, May.
    7. Juan Miguel Campanario, 2018. "Are leaders really leading? Journals that are first in Web of Science subject categories in the context of their groups," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 111-130, April.
    8. Bárbara S. Lancho-Barrantes & Vicente P. Guerrero-Bote & Félix Moya-Anegón, 2010. "The iceberg hypothesis revisited," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(2), pages 443-461, November.
    9. Glänzel, Wolfgang, 2010. "On reliability and robustness of scientometrics indicators based on stochastic models. An evidence-based opinion paper," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 313-319.
    10. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Flavia Costa, 2023. "Correlating article citedness and journal impact: an empirical investigation by field on a large-scale dataset," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1877-1894, March.
    11. Bertoli-Barsotti, Lucio & Lando, Tommaso, 2019. "How mean rank and mean size may determine the generalised Lorenz curve: With application to citation analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 387-396.
    12. William Cabos & Juan Miguel Campanario, 2018. "Exploring the Hjif-Index, an Analogue to the H-Like Index for Journal Impact Factors," Publications, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-11, April.
    13. Glänzel, Wolfgang, 2007. "Characteristic scores and scales," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 92-102.
    14. Tingcan Ma & Gui-Fang Wang & Ke Dong & Mukun Cao, 2012. "The Journal’s Integrated Impact Index: a new indicator for journal evaluation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 649-658, February.
    15. Pedro Albarrán & Juan A. Crespo & Ignacio Ortuño & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2011. "The skewness of science in 219 sub-fields and a number of aggregates," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(2), pages 385-397, August.
    16. Mingers, John & Yang, Liying, 2017. "Evaluating journal quality: A review of journal citation indicators and ranking in business and management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(1), pages 323-337.
    17. Hu, Zewen & Wu, Yishan, 2014. "Regularity in the time-dependent distribution of the percentage of never-cited papers: An empirical pilot study based on the six journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 136-146.
    18. Zewen Hu & Yishan Wu & Jianjun Sun, 2018. "A quantitative analysis of determinants of non-citation using a panel data model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 843-861, August.
    19. Milojević, Staša & Radicchi, Filippo & Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2017. "Citation success index − An intuitive pair-wise journal comparison metric," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 223-231.
    20. José María Gómez-Sancho & María Jesús Mancebón-Torrubia, 2009. "The evaluation of scientific production: Towards a neutral impact factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 435-458, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:78:y:2009:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-008-2166-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.