By:Falagas, ME (Falagas, Matthew E.)^{[ 1,2,3 ]} ; Kouranos, VD (Kouranos, Vasilios D.)^{[ 1 ]} ; Arencibia-Jorge, R (Arencibia-Jorge, Ricardo)^{[ 4 ]} ; Karageorgopoulos, DE (Karageorgopoulos, Drosos E.)^{[ 1 ]}

The application of currently available sophisticated algorithms of citation analysis allows for the incorporation of the "quality" of citations in the evaluation of scientific journals. We sought to compare the newly introduced SCImago journal rank (SJR) indicator with the journal impact factor ( IF). We retrieved relevant information from the official Web sites hosting the above indices and their source databases. The SJR indicator is an open-access resource, while the journal IF requires paid subscription. The SJR indicator ( based on Scopus data) lists considerably more journal titles published in a wider variety of countries and languages, than the journal IF ( based on Web of Science data). Both indices divide citations to a journal by articles of the journal, during a specific time period. However, contrary to the journal IF, the SJR indicator attributes different weight to citations depending on the "prestige" of the citing journal without the influence of journal self-citations; prestige is estimated with the application of the PageRank algorithm in the network of journals. In addition, the SJR indicator includes the total number of documents of a journal in the denominator of the relevant calculation, whereas the journal IF includes only "citable" articles ( mainly original articles and reviews). A 3-yr period is analyzed in both indices but with the use of different approaches. Regarding the top 100 journals in the 2006 journal IF ranking order, the median absolute change in their ranking position with the use of the SJR indicator is 32 (1st quartile: 12; 3rd quartile: 75). Although further validation is warranted, the novel SJR indicator poses as a serious alternative to the well-established journal IF, mainly due to its openaccess nature, larger source database, and assessment of the quality of citations.

Author Keywords:bibliometric analysis; quality of publications; bibliographic databases; mathematical computing; scientometrics

KeyWords Plus:SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS; SELF-CITATION; LANGUAGE; SCIENCE; EDITORS; TRENDS; PUBLICATION; ENGLISH; SCOPUS; BIAS

Reprint Address: Falagas, ME (reprint author)

Addresses:

	[ 1 ] Alfa Inst Biomed Sci, Athens, Greece
	[ 2 ] Tufts Univ, Sch Med, Dept Med, Boston, MA 02111 USA   Organization-Enhanced Name(s)     Tufts University
	[ 3 ] Henry Dunant Hosp, Dept Med, Athens, Greece
	[ 4 ] Natl Ctr Sci Res, Network Scientometr Studies Higher Educ, Havana 6880, Cuba

E-mail Addresses:m.falagas@aibs.gr

FEDERATION AMER SOC EXP BIOL, 9650 ROCKVILLE PIKE, BETHESDA, MD 20814-3998 USA

Research Areas:Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics; Cell Biology

Web of Science Categories:Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Biology; Cell Biology

Document Type:Article

Language:English

Accession Number: WOS:000258089300003

PubMed ID: 18408168

ISSN: 0892-6638

IDS Number: 332NI

Cited References in Web of Science Core Collection: 41

Times Cited in Web of Science Core Collection: 87