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Differences in impact factor across fields and over time
Open accessAbstract
The bibliometric measure impact factor is a leading indicator of journal influence, and impact factors are routinely used in making decisions ranging from selecting journal subscriptions to allocating research funding to deciding tenure cases. Yet journal impact factors have increased gradually over time, and moreover impact factors vary widely across academic disciplines. Here we quantify inflation over time and differences across fields in impact factor scores and determine the sources of these differences. We find that the average number of citations in reference lists has increased gradually, and this is the predominant factor responsible for the inflation of impact factor scores over time. Field‐specific variation in the fraction of citations to literature indexed by Thomson Scientific's Journal Citation Reports is the single greatest contributor to differences among the impact factors of journals in different fields. The growth rate of the scientific literature as a whole, and cross‐field differences in net size and growth rate of individual fields, have had very little influence on impact factor inflation or on cross‐field differences in impact factor.
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“In agreement with the findings of Ref. [11] c 0 shows very little correlation with the overall size of the field, as measured by the total number of articles.”
From Universality of citation distributions: Toward an objective measure of scientific impact (2008) · cites this paper as [11]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Althouse, B. M., West, J. D., Bergstrom, C. T., & Bergstrom, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Venue
- Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2008-12-12
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 27-34
- ISSN
- 1532-2882 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-2890
- OpenAlex
- W1859177121
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 18.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Web visibility and informetrics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
- Keywords
- journal impact factor, disciplinary differences, citation practices, Journal Citation Reports, bibliometric indicators, scientific literature growth, journal influence
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