July 28, 2005
Journal Citation Reports: 2004 data now available
The 2004 data is now available for Journal Citation Reports. Among other stats, this means the 2004 Impact Factors for the journals indexed by ISI are now available.
What does this mean, "2004 Impact Factors"? The Impact Factor is value that is often used as a measure of the worth of a journal. It is calculated from the number of articles that where published in 2004 that cited articles published in 2003 or 2002 in a particular journal. The higher an Impact Factor, the more cited a journal is, and, presumably, the higher it's impact (importance) in a particular field. Many squabble with the way IFs, but they are often used as a measure of the worth of a journal!
JCR also has been upgraded with enhancements that expand its analytical capabilities beyond the journal level to include categories, making it easier for users to spot trends in journal coverage and facilitate collection management decisions.
- Category level analysis — Much of the same statistical information available for individual journals is now available for journal categories, for data from 2003 forward. This provides a view of coverage, citation behavior and relationships across an entire subject. Cited Category and Citing Category lists show the most frequently cited journals in the subject. This information helps put a journal's impact factor into context.
- At the journal level, the Source Data table for items now includes "other" to account for non-scholarly items like news, commentaries, and editorial material — which makes it possible to understand more accurately the size and content of a publication.
- Headings have changed from "Country" to "Country and Territory", making geographic representation more accurate.
- Category scope notes are now edition- and year-specific, which ensures that scope notes most accurately reflect the content of each category.
Posted by at July 28, 2005 10:40 AM