Journal Citation Reports 2023: Understanding Bibliometric Data

Abstract

The annual Journal Citation Reports (JCR) was released in June 2023. Journal impact factors (JIFs) are expanded to all Web of Science Core Collection journals that meet the criteria set forth by the editors and bibliometric data authorities. This year's release includes Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing (DCCN)! The list of journals awarded a JIF for the first time is listed here: https://clarivate.com/first-time-journal-citation-reports-inclusion-list-2023/. We are pleased that DCCN has consistently met the quality criteria needed to be considered in the Web of Science collection. Any journal that fails to meet the 24 quality criteria is removed from the Web of Science Core Collection and will not move through the rigorous bibliometric assessment process.1 In 2021, DCCN was awarded the multidisciplinary Emerging Sources Citation Index and a Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) of 0.92. The JCI is a field-normalized measurement of journal citation impact reported by the Web of Science. It is a single journal-level metric that can be easily interpreted and compared across disciplines as a measure of the average Category Normalized Citation Impact of citable items (articles and reviews) published by a journal over the most recent 3-year period. It is used to help evaluate journals based on other metrics besides the JIF. The JCI is calculated for all journals in the Web of Science Core Collection.1 The JCI is meant to complement the JIF (the longstanding metric for journal evaluation). HISTORY OF BIBLIOMETRICS The metric referred to as impact factor (IF), or JIF, was conceived by Eugene Garfield,2 the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia. Garfield's assumption was that articles with higher citation counts are associated with greater influence or “impact” because they reflect acknowledgment by other researchers.2 In 1975, JIF began to be calculated annually for eligible journals listed in the JCR. Corporate changes and acquisitions made tracking this information challenging. The ISI was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992 and became known as Thomson ISI. In 2018, Thomson-Reuters sold ISI to Onex Corporation and Baring Private Equity Asia. They founded a new corporation, Clarivate, which currently produces JCR (https://clarivate.com/about-us/). Clarivate and Web of Science are publisher neutral, offering transparency in data and statistical methodology. These groups provide citation metrics, including the JIF and JCI, along with other descriptive open-access statistics and contributor information. One can find journal profiles with publication and citation data from the world's original citation index, the Web of Science Core Collections Master List at https://mjl.clarivate.com/home. Journal impact factor has become the most commonly used metric for assessing scientific journals; it is also the most fiercely debated and criticized, thus raising serious concerns about the validity of JIF as a measure of quality.3-5 Although this metric is the most widely known and often the established criteria for academic promotion and measurement of scholarly achievement, the measure must be assessed within the context of other bibliometrics. Additional journal, author, and article level are available from Clarivate and other organizations. For example, CiteScore is a metric for titles in Scopus, a citation and abstract database launched by the global publisher Elsevier. This journal evaluation metric was launched in December 2016 as an alternative to Clarivate's JCR IF. CiteScore is based on the citations collected for articles published in the preceding 4 years, instead of 2 or 5 in the JCR IF.5-7 Although many metrics apply only to journals, there are also metrics that are considered author level such as the h-index, g-index, and eigenfactor.3,4DCCN has an h-index of 33. This means 33 articles of this journal have more than 33 citations. The h-index is a way of measuring the productivity and citation impact of the publications and is also used as an author-level index. Originally, eigenfactor scores were measures of a journal's importance; it has been extended to also be an accepted author-level indicator. It can also be used in combination with the h-index to evaluate the work of individual scientists. In addition, article-level metrics, also called citation metrics, are measures that target the individual article-level impact rather than the impact at the journal level. ALTERNATIVE METRICS Other more general alternative metrics, or Altmetrics, include article views, downloads, or mentions in social media, new outlets, or popular press. These offer a different perspective on research impact, concentrating more on immediate social impact in and outside academia. Currently, journal web sites also offer a view of a global heat map, indicating where the article is being read and often adding insights into the community or group reading the article, such as a scientist or readers from the public sector. The field of bibliometrics continues to grow and examine ways in which citation scores can be normalized to provide an indicator that fairly compares impact across different fields of sciences.5,6 A broader bibliometric analysis may take information from Scopus or/and separately from Web of Science, but this may or may not produce a more comprehensive view of knowledge and trends in any given field, as the processes of each analysis may vary.6 Triggle and colleagues'5 comprehensive 2022 article explains the competition for IF ratings and the many complex factors considered in a post-COVID, preprint, open-access world. They include a cautionary quote, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea” (“Alain” [Émile-Auguste Chartier]).5 This quote reminds us to explore the trusted resources but remain open to many citation reports and alternative metrics that offer a different view of evolutionary changes within the publishing and scholarly community. This year when the Journal Citation Reports was released, DCCN received a JIF for the first time since its debut in 1982. With all its complexities, it is a welcome and well-earned award. The 2023 release lists the JIF for all journals that are indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection; have an Emerging Sources Citation Index, JCI, and other metrics; and meet the rigorous Web of Science quality criteria. This laborious selection process and careful data curation ensure that the scientific community can rely on the data and metrics in the Journal Citation Report. Displaying a JIF will provide full transparency to articles and citations that have contributed a scientific impact and demonstrate value to the research community. This designation enables the research community, publishers, and librarians to evaluate and compare the scholarly impact of the world's quality journals using not only the JIF, but also a range of indexes, indicators, descriptive data, and visualizations. The 2023 release of the Journal Citation Reports will display the JIF with one decimal place, rather than the current 3 decimal places, to encourage users to consider the other indicators and descriptive data in the JCR when comparing journals. CAUTIONARY USE OF BIBLIOMETRIC DATA It is important to mention that false or counterfeit bibliometrics do exist, especially when reported in predatory journals or spurious web sites. The Web of Science remains the most trusted resource to inform scientific bibliometrics. Clarivate cautions readers that any individual metric—including IF or JIF—should be considered together with informed peer review, trusted resources, and public reporting tools.3,8 In the case of academic evaluation for tenure or promotion, it is sometimes inappropriate to use the impact of the source journal to estimate the expected frequency of a recently published article. However, even tenure groups who rely on the traditional metrics currently consider a broader view of bibliometric reports. It is also important to consider that citation frequencies for individual articles are quite varied. Journal Citation Reports now includes more article-level data to provide a clearer understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the article and the journal. This level of transparency allows you to not only see the data, but also see through the data to a more nuanced consideration of journal value.1,3,8 Access to Journal Citation Reports9 (https://clarivate.com/products/scientific-and-academic-research/research-analytics-evaluation-and-management-solutions/journal-citation-reports/?utm_campaign=&utm_source=earned_coverage&utm_medium=press) may be offered through an institutional subscription or directly through the Web of Science Master List of Journals. Use these trusted resources to view the latest JIF and additional metrics to better understand a journal's content and audience. More information about the journal criteria and detailed selection process for the 2022 JIF was released on June 28, 2023.10 DCCN is proud to be a Web of Science indexed journal and receive our initial JIF of 1.7. We attribute this success to the support of our publisher, peer-review team, editorial board members, and production team. Most importantly, our accomplishments are a tribute to the work of the previous editors in chief, Suzanne Hall Johnson and Vickie Miracle.

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No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 14 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.