Author-weighted impact factor and reference return ratio: can we attain more equality among fields?

Tolga Yuret

doi:10.1007/s11192-018-2806-7

Author-weighted impact factor and reference return ratio: can we attain more equality among fields?

Tolga Yuret^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite its problems, journal impact factor (JIF) is the most popular journal quality metric. In this paper, two simple adjustments of JIF are tested to see whether more equality among fields can be attained. In author-weighted impact factor (AWIF), the number of citations that a journal receive is divided by the number of authors in that journal. In reference return ratio (RRR), the number of citations that a journal receive is divided by the number of references in that journal. We compute JIF, AWIF and RRR of all 10,848 journals included in journal citation report 2012. Science journals outperform social science journals at JIF but social science journals outperform science journals at both AWIF and RRR. Highest level of equality between science and social science journals is attained when AWIF is used. These findings cannot be generalized when narrower subject categories are considered.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2097-2111
Number of pages	15
Journal	Scientometrics
Volume	116
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2806-7
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.

Keywords

Cited-references
Field-neutrality
Impact factor
Number of authors

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10.1007/s11192-018-2806-7

Cite this

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abstract = "Despite its problems, journal impact factor (JIF) is the most popular journal quality metric. In this paper, two simple adjustments of JIF are tested to see whether more equality among fields can be attained. In author-weighted impact factor (AWIF), the number of citations that a journal receive is divided by the number of authors in that journal. In reference return ratio (RRR), the number of citations that a journal receive is divided by the number of references in that journal. We compute JIF, AWIF and RRR of all 10,848 journals included in journal citation report 2012. Science journals outperform social science journals at JIF but social science journals outperform science journals at both AWIF and RRR. Highest level of equality between science and social science journals is attained when AWIF is used. These findings cannot be generalized when narrower subject categories are considered.",

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Author-weighted impact factor and reference return ratio: can we attain more equality among fields?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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