As the next generation of scientists and researchers contemplate the projects they’ll tackle this autumn, I think of the old adage “publish or perish,” which still rings true for many graduate students today.
Researchers aim to publish the manuscripts containing their findings in the most meaningful outlet for their field, reaching the greatest audience for their work.
Given that we create as much information every two days as was created from the dawn of civilization through 2003, which is about five exabytes of data every 48 hours, understanding the current state of academic and scholarly publishing can be daunting.
And, with more than two million original research articles, notes, proceedings and review papers indexed annually in Thomson Reuters Web of Science--reflecting more than 12,000 academic journals and other sources, including open access journals--the competition is fierce to find the right outlet for your work.
Fortunately there is a way: the “Journal Impact Factor” (JIF), a rating given to academic journals that captures the impact of the publication based on a scientific analysis of citation data; a yardstick for determining the overall influence of a research publication.
A Bit of History
The Journal Impact Factor reflects the judgments of scientists and scholars regarding the most noteworthy and useful research. It was founded by Information Scientist Dr. Eugene Garfield and has been in existence for several decades.
When researchers publish the results of their work, they footnote, or cite, previously published work on which theirs is based. By marking their points of departure and specifying the earlier work they’re pushing forward, authors acknowledge an intellectual debt to previous publications and authors.
Citations can be tracked and tallied over time, serving as markers of activity, concentration and influence. In the mid-1950’s, Dr. Garfield first proposed the idea of a citation index, recognizing the value of citations for organizing and clarifying the world of scholarly research.
In 1964, the Science Citation Index (SCI) was released. It’s now known as the Web of Science, covering the world’s most influential scientific and scholarly journals as well as open-access content, and every citation recorded: more than one billion in total. When analyzed in aggregate, these citations serves as concrete data points for assessing researchers, institutions, nations and regions.
The first Journal Impact Factor was published within a suite of metrics called the Journal Citation Reports in 1975, and has been ever since.
Unlock the Citation Vault
The Journal Impact Factor answers a simple question: how many times has the average article in a given journal been cited in a particular year or period? It’s the ratio between citations and recent citable items. The citable items refer to articles and conference proceedings that announce original work, along with review articles that summarize key research in a given area.
By capturing all the citations recorded within the covered journals (and even in those not covered), the Web of Science and Journal Impact Factor convey the collective judgment of the scientific community on the significance and utility of published work.
For a journal to be included in the Web of Science and its component databases, it must pass a range of tests including timeliness of publishing, novel content and international diversity, among other criteria.
After 40 years, and even with the development of different metrics, citations retain a singular power as the strongest and most reliable indicator of scholarly value, reflecting the weight scholars assign to cited references. The cited reference is king.
Find the Best Journal for Your Work
The following tips can help researchers find the most appropriate and advantageous journal in which to publish.
- Know your audience. When you begin to look for the journal that best fits your research, have a clear understanding of your audience. How do you envision your work being applied? To what industries or sectors? Use this as the basis for targeting journals in the most appropriate area.
- Assess the field. Your research doesn’t stop once you’ve written your manuscript. You still need to assess the field you’re covering and look at who else has published and where they’re publishing. Make a list of those outlets, understand the competitive landscape and know how your work is different from others who have already published.
- Do your homework. Investigate the publications on your list. Contact the editors for copies. Compare and contrast journals, noting the frequency of publication, paid versus free, circulation, geographic reach, and other information to help with your decision.
- Check the board. Be sure to know who is on the editorial board and part of the peer-review process. Look at their backgrounds to identify any similarities to the work you’re publishing.
- What’s the JIF? Find out what the Journal Impact Factor is for the outlets you’re considering. This will be an important data point as you make your final decision. The journals with the highest impact factors are the ones to give serious consideration.
As we plunge deeper into the age of Big Data, where every article, tweet, photo and hyperlink is tagged, catalogued and measured hundreds of different ways, it may sound surprising that the core measure of social influence actually has its roots in a citation analysis concept pioneered in the 1960s.
We continue to grow increasingly dependent on these types of metrics for determining everything from research funding to new product development. Analysis around journal citation influence has grown more important than ever and can be a powerful differentiator as you make the important decision about where to publish.
