Faculty of Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Seminar presented at Dept. of Mech. Eng., UI (on 14 th July 2011)

and at Faculty of Engineering. UNDIP (on 19 th May 2015)

Choosing a Good Journal

S. H. Winoto
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Engineering, UNDIP
(formerly at FoE, National University of Singapore)
E-mail: shwinoto@gmail.com
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

Part 2: CHOOSING A GOOD JOURNAL

2.1 A Brief Account on Publications
2.2 What makes a Good Journal
2.3 Science Citation Index (SCI)
2.4 Web of Science
2.5 Journal Citation Report (JCR)
2.6 Impact Factor (IF)
2.7 Factors affecting Journal Impact Factor
2.8 How a Journal get an Impact Factor
2.1 A Brief Account on Publications

Currently, there are more than 50,000 scholarly

(academic) journals being published in the world
(according to Dr. Carol Tenopir, Prof. of School of
Information Technology, Tennessee University, USA)
as in 2011.
Why so many journals ?
One of the reasons is: because the Culture of
Publishing Publish or Perish
Some researchers just publish for the sake of it (the
number game, the conditions laid by the
Universities and funding Institutions)
2.1 A Brief Account on Publications (continued)

As a result, there is a danger that we are Data Rich

but Knowledge Poor
However, out of about 50,000 journals, only about
9,200+ (about 20%) are accepted in the the Web of
Science of which 300 to 400 are in languages other
than English.
The breakdown of the 9,200+ journals:
- 6,700 in Sciences
- 1990 in Social Sciences
- 1160 in Arts and Humanities
Note: the figures above are based on 2007-2008 data
2.1 A Brief Account on Publications (continued)

The company which manages the Web of Science is

ISI (Institute of Scientific Information), a Citation
company which in 1992 was acquired by Thomson
Corporation Thomson ISI Thomson Scientifics
Thomson Reuters Scientifics now.
The journal selection policy is one of the foundation
policies of Thomson Reuters.
About 2,000 journals are evaluated annually by
Thomson Reuters staff members in Philadelphia, but
only about 10% accepted.
Note: Publication Policy at National University of Singapore (NUS)

The Mech. Eng. (ME) Dept. at NUS only recognize the

publications in the List of the Web of Science
Science Citation Indexes (SCI).

The ME Dept., NUS classified publications according to

quality or Impact Factor (IF) of the journals:
- Tier 1: Premier (like Journal of Fluid Mehanics,
Physics of Fluids, etc) for Fluid Mech discipline.
- Tier 2: Journal of Visualization, Tribology
Transactions, etc.
- Tier 3: ..(cant think of any).
- Others: not recognized
Note: Publications of Graduate Students at NUS

A Ph. D student is expected to publish at least

three technical papers on his/her research work in
good journals. (Even though there is no written
rule on this).
While an M. Eng student is expected to publish one
paper in a good journal (but usually, this target could
not be achieved, since M. Eng. students would usually
leave in a hurry to find a job) starting 3 or 4 years
ago, Scholarships for M. Eng. students were
discontinued.
2.2 What makes a Good Journal
To help choose the most suitable or a good journal for your paper, you
may want to ask some Questions such as:
Does the journal have an international audience ?
Is the journal peer reviewed ?
Who is the editor ?
Who is on the editorial board ?
Which authors publish in the journal ?
Is the journal in the Science Citation Index (SCI) database ? If so,
what is its Impact Factor (IF) ? Is IF an important consideration for
your subject area?
Is the journal available online ?
Is the journal published by an international association or learned
society ? (for example, Physics of Fluids by American Institute of
Physics)
Is there a publication cost involved for an accepted paper ?
How long will it take from the acceptance to publication ?
Note:
Citation Index: is a concept published by Dr. Eugene Garfield in
Science in 1955, who later in 1960 started a company called ISI
(Institute of Scientific Information) which created and produced the
Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Sciences Citation Index
(SSCI), the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), and the
Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

Impact Factor (IF) of a journal is defined as:

Citations in 2 years by number of papers published
in 2 years in that journal.
It takes 3 years for a journal to have an IF.
5 year IF was proposed and has been adopted.
More details on these in the coming slides later.
2.3 Science Citation Index (SCI)

What is the Science Citation Index?

The Science Citation Index (SCI) is a literature search tool
available on DVD, providing access to bibliographic
information, abstracts, and reference lists from over 3,700
scientific, technical, and medical journals.
The Science Citation Index ExpandedTM, available online
through the Web of Science, covers all the journals in Science
Citation Index along with over 4,000 additional titles.
Besides Science Citation Index, there are also:
The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) which is a literature
search tool available online via the Web of Science.
It provides access to bibliographic information, abstracts, and
reference lists from over 2,600 journals in the social sciences and
from selected articles from approximately 3,300 scientific, technical,
and medical journals. There is no expanded version of the Social
Sciences Citation Index, and
The Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) which is a literature
search tool available online via the Web of Science.
It provides access to bibliographic information, abstracts, and
reference lists from over 1,530 arts and humanities journals and from
selected articles from approximately 7,000 journals in the sciences
and social sciences. There is no expanded version of the Arts &
Humanities Citation Index.
2.4 Web of Science

What is the Web of Science?

The Web of Science is Thomson Reuters' web
interface, which allows searching across the Science
Citation Index ExpandedTM, the Social Sciences
Citation Index; and the Arts & Humanities Citation
Index, covering a total of 11,100 journals.
The Web of Science also allows searching across
additional databases owned or licensed by Thomson,
such as Index Chemicus, BIOSIS Previews and
MEDLINE.
2.5 Journal Citation Reports
The Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are annual reports produced by
Thomson Reuters which allow the evaluation and comparison of
journals based on citation data. The citation data in the JCR is collected
over one year and published the next June.
For example, the 2009 Journal Citation Reports are based on citation
data from 2009 but were published in June 2010. The Journal Citation
Reports come in two editions, the Science Edition, covering the
journals included in the Science Citation Index-ExpandedTM, and the
Social Science Edition, covering the journals in the Social Sciences
Citation Index. Some journals are listed in both editions. There is no Arts
& Humanities edition.
Please note that unless a journal is selected for coverage in its first
volume, it will take 2 to 3 years after coverage begins in the Science
Citation Index-ExpandedTM or Social Sciences Citation Index for a
journal to be listed in the Journal Citation Reports. For example, a
journal selected for coverage in 2010 should be listed for the first time in
the 2012 Journal Citation Reports.
The metrics published yearly in the Journal Citation Reports include the
journal impact factors.
2.6 Impact Factor (IF)
What is an Impact Factor ?
Impact factors give the average number of citations received by
articles in a particular journal; essentially, the average number of
times that articles in a particular journal are referred to (or
referenced) by other articles.
The impact factors published annually in the Journal Citation
Reports are defined as:
Number of citations (references) received in the impact factor
year to articles published in the 2 previous years, divided by the
number of articles published in these 2 years.
Therefore, the 2009 JCR impact factors (released in 2010) were
calculated as:
Number of citations received in 2009 to articles published in 2008
and 2007 in Journal X divided by the number of articles
published in 2008 and 2007 in Journal X
For example, the 2009 Impact Factor for Journal X was calculated
as follows:

Citations in 2009 to articles published in Journal X in 2008 = 207

Citations in 2009 to articles published in Journal X in 2007 = 208
Total citations received in 2009 to articles published in 2007 and
2008 = 208 + 207 = 415
Number of articles published in Journal X in 2007 = 40
Number of articles published in Journal X in 2008 = 54
Total number of articles published in 2007 and 2008 = 40 + 54
= 94
2009 Impact Factor = Citations in 2009 to articles published in
2008 and 2007 No. of articles published in 2007 and 2008
Hence: 2009 IF for Journal X = (415 94) = 4.415

Now, we also have Impact Factor for 5 years.

2.7 Factors affecting Journal Impact Factors
1. Subject variation
The average number of citations received by articles during the
2 years after publication varies considerably across different
subject fields. This leads to very different ranges of Impact
Factors in different subject areas.
For example, the top journal in cell biology has an IF of > 40. In
law, however, the top journal has an IF of < 5. This doesn't
mean that cell biology journals are 'better' than law journals; it
is simply a reflection of different referencing patterns and
behavior in these fields.
The Journal Citation Reports take this variation into account by
dividing the journals into subject categories. It is only within
these categories that impact factors should be compared, and a
journal's relative standing in a category is generally more
important than the actual value of its impact factor. There are
over 220 subject categories in the two editions of the Journal
Citation Reports.
 You may see the following type of information on a
journal homepage:
2009 Impact Factor: 4.415
(2/88 Marine & Freshwater Biology, 19/150
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology)
Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports 2010
This means that the Journal has an IF = 4.415 and this
is the 2nd highest Impact Factor out of the 88 journals
listed in the "Marine & Fresh Water Biology" category,
and also the 19th out of the 150 journals listed in the
"Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology" category.
2. Basic versus applied research
Applied journals are more likely to refer to related
basic research journals than other applied journals.
There is no comparable flow of citations back from
the basic research journals. Thus, basic research
journals tend to receive more citations than related
applied journals and, hence, have higher Impact
Factors.
Practice-based and educational journals often have
particularly low Impact Factors compared to the
basic research journals in their fields. However,
these journals fulfill a necessary role within their
community.
3. Article types

Review articles are generally cited more often than primary

research articles, because authors will often cite one review
article rather than the many primary research articles it is based
on. As such, review journals, or journals that publish a significant
amount of review content alongside their primary content, usually
have higher Impact Factors than other journals in their field. For
example, the average 2003 Impact Factor for review journals
published by Taylor & Francis, Routledge, Psychology Press, and
Informa Healthcare was 3.5 times higher than the average for the
primary research journals.
Although the JCR lists journals from different subject areas
separately to take account of subject variation in impact factors,
it does not list review journals separately from primary research
journals. Hence, review journals are often ranked amongst the
highest journals in their fields. For example, three of the top five
journals in the 2009 "Chemistry Multidisciplinary" category were
review journals.
4. Journal size

A journal's Impact Factor can change a great deal from year to

year: the smaller the journal is, the more variable its Impact
Factor is likely to be. This is because small changes in the
absolute number of citations received have a much larger effect
on the average number of citations when the denominator
(number of articles) is small.
For example: consider the effect of publishing an article which
receives 5 citations, on two theoretical journals with an impact
factor of 1.000, one publishing 25 articles a year and the other
100 articles a year. In the small journal this will improve the
impact factor by 0.100 (=5/(2x25), which is a 10% improvement.
However, in the large journal, this would only lead to an
improvement of 0.025 (=5/(2x100) which is only a 2.5%
improvement.
2.8 How a journal get an impact factor
Journals have to be selected for coverage in either the Science Citation
Index-ExpandedTM or the Social Sciences Citation Index before they
can be listed in the Journal Citation Reports and given an Impact Factor.

Thomson Reuters considers many factors when evaluating whether to

cover a journal in one of its citation indexes. These include the level of
citation activity to the journal from the titles that are already indexed,
basic publishing standards such as getting issues published on
schedule, and the international relevance of the journal. However, the
subject coverage of the journal is also an important factor and journals
in well-covered or low-priority subjects may struggle to get selected.

As mentioned above, it should be noted that even if a journal is selected

for coverage in the Science Citation Index-ExpandedTM or Social
Sciences Citation Index, it will be 2 to 3 years after coverage begins
before the journal is listed in the Journal Citation Reports, unless the
journal is selected for coverage in its first volume. For example, a
journal selected for coverage in 2010 should be listed for the first time in
the 2012 Journal Citation Reports.
Thank you for
your attention !

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