Metrics (1) - Journal Impact Factor

All research has an impact. To substantiate their own theories, academics cite publications of others. In citation databases, like "the two titans in science", Web of Science and Scopus*, you can discover how many times an academic publication or a peer-reviewed journal is cited by other academics. Measuring the impact of research is important for academics, policymakers and providers of funding. In three blog posts, I will discuss the basic forms of metrics within research output and the tools to measure them. This is the first post. The topic is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF).

Measuring the JIF
Originally the JIF was developed by libraries as a tool to help decide which journals had the most impact within a certain field, so they could include them in the collection. Nowadays one of the most used databases of the Library, Web of Science, gives insight into the number of times a journal is cited by academics via their Journal Citations Reports. The number of the JIF is based on the last three publication years of the journal. 

For instance, the JIF in 2020 of the Dutch journal BMGN is measured as follow:
(image taken from JCR BMGN 2020)

The number of self-citations is included in this outcome. If you would leave out these self-citations, the JIF for BMGN would be: (18 - 4)/41 = 0.341.

Top 20 of History journals with the highest JIF 
What are currently the historical journals with the highest JIF? The overview below is taken from the Journal Citation Reports of 2020. If you want to access the journals mentioned then look them up in our UvA Journal Catalogue.

1. Journal of Economic History (JIF: 3.547)
2. Journal of Global History (JIF: 2.195)
3. Past & Present (JIF: 2.188)
4. Cliometrica (JIF:  2.167)
5. American Historical Review (JIF: 1.928)
6. Economic History Review (JIF: 1.911)
7. Memory Studies (JIF: 1.589)
8. Journal of Interdisciplinary History  (JIF: 1.568)
9. Nations and Nationalism (JIF: 1.433)
10. Intelligence and National Security (JIF: 1.326)
11. Management and Organizational History (JIF: 1.258)
12. History & Anthropology (JIF: 1.250)
13. Revista de Historica Economica (JIF: 1.242)
14. Comparative Studies in Society and History (JIF: 1.219)
15. Historical Journal (JIF: 1.181)
16. Rural History - Economic Society Culture (JIF: 1.160)
17. History and Theory (JIF: 1.096)
18. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (JIF: 1.080)
19. Journal of Modern Italian Studies (JIF: 1.070)
20. Journal of Australian Studies (JIF: 1.032)

Dutch journals include: 

• BMGN (number 76; JIF: 0.439), 
• Dutch Crossing (number 104; JIF: 0.133). 
• Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis (number 106; JIF: 0.108) 

If we were to reduce the list to 100% Open Access Journals (Gold), then BMGN will climb up to the impressive fourth position. But not all (Dutch) history periodicals are listed in the JIF overview. Does this indicate that these others are irrelevant? And how reliable are JIF numbers?  

Video on finding citations and reliability
At the UvA Library, we have made a video on finding citations, the reliability and a comparison between Web of Science and Google Scholar citation outcomes.

 

The Declaration on Research Assessment or DORA (signed by the VSNU) correctly points out that the quality of the research itself must always be evaluated, regardless of where or by whom it is published. The JIF is an indication of the impact of a journal, not a quality measurement. Though it is often wrongly perceived this way. 

Questions on impact via metrics?

More information on bibliometrics can be found on our website (for now only in Dutch) At our UvA Library, my colleague Kasper Abcouwer specializes in metrics.** If you have any questions on bibliometrics then please contact him via e-mail.  

* Web of Science with its large humanities journal collection is commonly used at Humanities. Other citation databases that provide JIF are Google Scholar, Crossref, CiteSeer and MAS.

** Thanks to Kasper for reading this post and providing helpful comments and insights!