Monday, 12 December 2011

Belated² 2010 Impact Factors

The Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for 2010 have been out for months, but I only just now got around to creating this post. This is miles away from my World Cup of Impact Factors post from a year ago, which was published within hours of last year's report release! Apologies for that. The above explanation covers the one "belated" of the title. Of course, the other "belated" has to do with the fact that, as always, Impact Factors for 2010 were published with a year's delay in the middle of the summer of 2011!

Controversial as Impact Factors are, they remain the main way in which journal quality is judged. The higher the Impact Factor, the more sought after the journal is, and publishing in the top journals (especially Nature and Science) can make or break a scientist's career.

So how did journals do in this yearly competition? Like last year, I have selected a few journals that I find interesting personally, and are somehow relevant to the research I am familiar with.



Journal

Impact factor
2010

Impact factor
2009

5-year
impact factor


36.104

34.480

35.248


32.406

31.152

34.931


31.377

29.747

31.777


31.090

29.495

29.065


12.472

12.916

14.376


9.771

9.432

10.591


9.667

12.125

13.327


7.836

7.479

7.314


5.517

5.759

6.251


5.512

4.725

5.263


5.460

5.132

5.617


4.877

4.926

6.326


4.411

4.351

4.610


3.601

3.451

3.399


3.565

4.064

3.961


3.129

3.042

3.200


3.029

3.428

3.787


3.021

1.695

2.377


2.371

2.574

2.491


1.735

2.384

2.025


1.600

1.694

2.033


As my friend Duncan over at O'Really pointed out, it certainly looks like the big journals are getting bigger, and the small journals are getting smaller. Information about all journals can be accessed online on the ISI website, but a subscription is required. Accessing the website through a university IP address will usually do the trick.


Have I left some interesting journals out of my table? Drop me a line and I will be happy to add any suggestions.




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