The Journal Selection Process Spanish Research in Web of Science

The Journal Selection Process Spanish Research in Web of Science

James TestaSenior Director

Editorial Development / Publisher RelationsMadrid, June 12, 2008

Impact Factor in Context: Origins and Use

• Thomson Reuters Introduction

• Brief Overview of Journal Selection Process– Focus Impact Factor

• Regional Content Expansion

• Research from Spain in Web of Science– Journals

– Papers

– Citations

• How to Improve your journal.

3

Who is Thomson Reuters: Scientific?

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for professionals in business, academics, publishing, government and research organizations. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted information organization.

Thomson Reuters Scientific is the leading provider of high quality information solutions to the world's research and development communities. We provide information that is essential for drug companies to discover new drugs and get them to market faster, for researchers to find relevant papers and know what's newly published in their subject, and for businesses to optimize their intellectual property and find competitive intelligence.

Web of Science

• SCIExpanded

• Social Sciences Citation Index

• Arts & Humanities Citation Index

Thomson Journal Selection Process – Why be Selective? Eugene Garfield PhD

• Small number of journals publish the bulk of significant scientific results.– 7,621 journals in SCIE and SSCI publish 814,967 articles that

receive 20,834,641 citations• 300 journals (4%) publish 239,206 articles (30%)• 300 journals (4%) receive 10,681,596 citations ((51%)• 3,000 journals (40%) publish 648,906 articles (80%)• 3,000 journals receive (40%) 19,287,265 citations (92%)

• 2000 journals evaluated annually

– 10% accepted

• Thomson editors: information professionals; librarians; experts in the literature of their subject area.

… Journal Selection

1. Basic Journal Publishing Standards

2. Editorial Content

3. International Diversity

4. Citation Analysis

… Journal Selection

1.) Publishing Standards

a.) Timeliness

b.) Editorial Conventions

c.) English Language Bibliographic

Information

d.) Peer Review

... Journal Selection

2.) Editorial Content

– Will this journal enrich the database or is the subject already well covered?

– Will this journal complement coverage in a specific category?

– How does this journal compare with covered journals of similar editorial content?


3.) International Diversity– Do the authors, editors, and editorial advisory board members

represent the international research community?

– Does this journal target an International of Regional audience?


4.) Citation Analysis

– For new journals we analyze citations to the authors’ prior work. Has the work of these authors been cited in the literature?

– For established journals we use Impact Factor

Impact Factor:

…the average number of times recent articles in a journal were cited in a particular year.

…citation performance of the journal as a whole, and not the performance of any specific article.

Top 20 Biomedical Journals by Number of Articles Published in 2006

Top 20 Biomedical Journals by Total Citations Rec’d 2006

Top 20 Biomedical Journals by 2006 Impact Factor

200620052004

Source paper – published in 2006

Cited reference – to items published in 2005 or 2004

Citations

2006 Impact Factor

All Previous Years

2003 2007

Impact Factor =Cites in 2006 to 2005 or 2004 papers

Papers published in 2005 or 2004

The average number of citations in 2006 to scholarly material that was published in the prior two years

Time

Emerging Infectious Diseases

2006 Impact factor: 5.094

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) -- 2006 Science Edition

Impact Factor Calculation

Journal: Emerging Infectious Diseases

Impact Factor: 5.094

Cites in 2006 to articles published in :

2005 = 1645

2004 = 1982 05 + 04 = 3627

Number of articles published in:2005 = 3382004 = 374

05 + 04 = 712

Calculation:Cites to recent articles 3627 = 5.094 Number of recent articles 712

Impact Factor in Context of Various Categories

Germany: Top Ten Journals Ranked by 2006 Impact Factor

•Impact Factor Range: 13.667 – 5.015•Industrialized nation; fully developed research infrastructure•All journals publish full text English•All journals produced by major publishers (Springer, Wiley, Elsevier)

Japan: Top Ten Journals Ranked by 2006 Impact Factor

•Impact Factor range: 7.320 – 1.963•Industrialized nation; fully developed research infrastructure•9 out of 10 journals publish full text English•Elsevier, Blackwell, Oxford, and Springer present

Brazil: Top Ten Journals Ranked by 2006 Impact Factor

•Impact Factor range: 1.208 – 0.413•Emerging nation•Five of ten journals publish full text English•No major publisher involved.

• Properly used Impact Factor can tell us something about a journal as a whole namely the extent to which its recently published papers were cited in a given year.

• It tells us nothing concrete about any specific paper or specific author. Most articles in most fields are not highly cited. Less than 25% of all articles receive 5 or more citations and many articles are never cited.

Regional Content Expansion

• Mission:– Meet the needs of the emerging and growing regional

community of WoS users.

– Identify, evaluate, and select the best Regional Journals.

• Regional journals target a regional rather than an international audience.

• Regional journals focus on topics of regional importance (e.g. social sciences, clinical medicine, agriculture)

– Cover Regional Journals that complement our renowned international coverage in all areas of science, social science, and arts & humanities.

Expand the Editorial Scope of Web of Science to include the best

international and regional journals published today.23

Regional Content Expansion

• 2007 Goal:– Identify, evaluate, select

• 700 of the best regional journals– Journals including regional scholarship, targetting a regional rather than

international audience, presenting research from a regional perspective.

• “The quality of each of these newly added journals is on the level the world has come to expect from the Web of Science.”

• James Testa, Sr, Dir. Ed. Dev. & Publisher Rel.

Regional Journal Content Expansion - 2007Breakdown for Regional and Subject Area

Region A&H AB&ES CM EC&T LS PC&ES S&BS TotalAP 6 26 45 28 13 32 49 199EU 40 50 70 46 16 51 91 364LA 7 24 16 10 4 8 11 80MA 8 8 11 5 5 4 9 50NA 0 0 6 0 0 0 1 7

Total 61 108 148 89 38 95 161 700

Regions:AP : Asia PacificEU : European UnionLA : Latin AmericaMA : Middle East/AfricaNA : North America

Subject Areas:A&H : Arts &HumanitiesAB&ES : AgBio & Environmental SciCM : Clinical MedicineEC&T : Engineering Computing & TechnologyLS : Life SciencePC&ES : PhysChem & Earth ScienceS&BS : Social & Behavioral Science

26

Research in Spain

Spain: Journals in WoS 2002 - 2008

Steady increase in Spanish journal coverage:

87% increase from2002 to 2008

28Source: Thomson Reuters, National Science Indicators, 1981-2007. Standard version.

Growth in Papers in Spain, 1981-2007

The rate of growth in Spanish papers has averaged 9% since 1981 while the average rate of growth for the world is about 3%.

Papers

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000


Spanish contribution to the EU: 2003-2007The EU contributed 37% of papers in the world in the most recent 5 year period. Spain was #5 among the top 10 countries driving EU performance in same period.

The EU contributed 37% of papers in the world in the most recent 5 year period. Spain was #5 among the top 10 countries driving EU performance in same period.


Paper growth in France is just beginning to plateau while Italy and Spain continue to grow.

National Comparisons of Selected Countries

Paper Growth, 1981-2007


French share of papers in the world is declining while Italy and Spain is on the rise. Portugal’s share remains relatively flat.

National Comparisons of Selected Countries

Percentage of papers in the world, 1981-2007

32

Countries contributing 1% or more on average to Total Publications Worldwide, 2003-2007

Countries contributing 1% or more on average to Total Publications Worldwide, 2003-2007

Source: Thomson Scientific, National Science Indicators, 1981-2007. Standard version.

33

The average citation rate of countries in relation to the world average citation rate

The average citation rate in the world is 4.58 in this 5 year period. This graphically displays countries above and below that world rate.

Average cites/paper for the world


34

Average citation rate per paper


35

Spain meets or exceeds world average citation rate (2003-2007) in 10 out of 22 fields


Spanish average cites/paper World average cites/paper

36Source: Thomson Reuters, Essential Science Indicators, 2004 archive & 2008-Q1 data

The top countries have been relatively stable but other countries such as Spain are advancing in citations.

Country September 2004 March 2008

USA 1 1

UK 2 2

Germany 3 3

Japan 4 4

France 5 5

Canada 6 6

Italy 7 7

Netherlands 8 8

Switzerland 9 11

Australia 10 9

Sweden 11 13

Spain 12 10

Comparisons by Total Citations – from Essential Science Indicators

37

Citations to Spanish papers continue to grow at a strong rate as papers become widely distributed globally.

Growth in Citations

Spanish Citation Growth, 1981-2007

Source: Thomson Reuters, National Science Indicators, 1981-2007. Standard version.

38

Percentage of Papers CitedThis graph shows that the percentage of papers receiving citations and can

be considered as a measure of influence. The percentage of Spanish papers that are cited has risen strongly over the 25 year period.


39

National Strengths


These are the top 10 fields as a percentage of total Spanish research output.

How Can I Improve My Journal?

1. Active recruitment of high-impact articles by courting researchers

2. Offering authors better services

3. Boosting the journal’s media profile

4. More careful article selection

-M. Chew, E. V. Villanueva, and M. B. Van Der Weyden, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 100 (3), 142 (2007)..

Thank you.

Visit the Thomson Scientific Web site at

http://www.scientific.thomsonreuters.com/.

Contact me at

[email protected]