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A while back I posted an article concerning the whereabouts of journal
impact factors. I have had several requests for information on these,
so what follows is what I have managed to glean:
The Impact factors are available from most university libraries, as
they should have a copy of the "Science Citation Index, Journal
Citation Reports" from the Institute for Scientific Information. The
ISI can be contacted on (correct for 1992)
USA: 215 386 0100
Europe: +44 (0)1895 270016 (Brunel University)
In the index there are several indicators of a journals worth,
including:
the number of articles published in the journal to date.
no. of times journal was cited.
no. of articles cited in the year of publication (immediacy index).
impact factors - average number of current citations to articles in a
journal over the last two years.
and other indicators.
On the issue of the use of impact factors, I have entered into several
discussions with other Biomech-L members. There is an opinion that you
have to take care when using these, as obviously a journal publishing
controversial or flawed papers could have as high an impact factor as a
journal publishing only very good articles. The best use of them is as
an indication of the audience that the journal reaches.
I stated this in my original article, and I re-emphasise it, should the
ISI be 'listening', surely information like this should be available on
the WWW.
Thankyou for your replies to my original posting,
Alex Kerin.
_____________________________________
O.S.C.O.R.
University of Bristol
School of Veterinary Science
Southwell Street
Bristol. BS2 8EJ
email: A.Kerin@bristol.ac.uk
Voice: +44 (0)117 9288792
_____________________________________
impact factors. I have had several requests for information on these,
so what follows is what I have managed to glean:
The Impact factors are available from most university libraries, as
they should have a copy of the "Science Citation Index, Journal
Citation Reports" from the Institute for Scientific Information. The
ISI can be contacted on (correct for 1992)
USA: 215 386 0100
Europe: +44 (0)1895 270016 (Brunel University)
In the index there are several indicators of a journals worth,
including:
the number of articles published in the journal to date.
no. of times journal was cited.
no. of articles cited in the year of publication (immediacy index).
impact factors - average number of current citations to articles in a
journal over the last two years.
and other indicators.
On the issue of the use of impact factors, I have entered into several
discussions with other Biomech-L members. There is an opinion that you
have to take care when using these, as obviously a journal publishing
controversial or flawed papers could have as high an impact factor as a
journal publishing only very good articles. The best use of them is as
an indication of the audience that the journal reaches.
I stated this in my original article, and I re-emphasise it, should the
ISI be 'listening', surely information like this should be available on
the WWW.
Thankyou for your replies to my original posting,
Alex Kerin.
_____________________________________
O.S.C.O.R.
University of Bristol
School of Veterinary Science
Southwell Street
Bristol. BS2 8EJ
email: A.Kerin@bristol.ac.uk
Voice: +44 (0)117 9288792
_____________________________________