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Citation analysis for The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Reflection & Reaction Citation analysis for The Lancet Infectious Diseases The frequency of citation of published articles should not be the sole measure of success of a journal,1 but it is one indicator that the journal is proving useful to readers. Now that The Lancet Infectious Diseases has entered its 4th year of publication, as Editor I wanted to have some sense of the citation frequency of papers. This information might also be valuable for authors considering submitting to the journal. The most famous measure of citation frequency is the impact factor, as published each year by Thomson ISI in their Journal Citation Report (http://www.isinet.com/products/ evaltools/jcr/jcrweb/). In most cases, Thomson ISI publishes a journal’s first impact factor once they have collected publication data for 2 years, followed by 1 year of data on citations to those published articles. Thus we have to wait until 2005 for The Lancet Infectious Diseases to have an impact factor, because the journal has been indexed by Thomson ISI only since the beginning of 2002.
Although Thomson ISI goes to the considerable trouble of calculating and reporting impact factors, it is possible to determine citation frequency from other sources. In November of this year, Elsevier (owners of The Lancet Infectious Diseases) will launch Scopus (http://www.scopus.com/), a database of abstracts from 14 000 journals, including 6300 in life and health sciences. At launch, Scopus will include 10 years of citation data, which is more than sufficient to cover the period of publication of The Lancet Infectious Diseases. With Scopus data, I have calculated a 2003 citation frequency for Lancet Infectious Diseases articles of 6·86—ie, the average journal article published in 2001 and 2002 was cited 6·86 times during 2003. Readers with access to the Journal Citation Report on the web can get a sense of how this number compares against those journals included in the ISI subject category of infectious diseases.
A valuable feature of Scopus is the ability to analyse citation data for individual articles. Browsing this facility confirmed something I thought I knew already—commentaries are seldom cited—but also showed, unexpectedly, that articles with quirky titles fail to garner many citations, no matter how serious and worthy the actual content of the paper. The latter, admittedly anecdotal, finding raises some interesting questions about how authors go about gathering references for their own papers. Although the citation frequency calculation is rather rough and ready, it will be intriguing to see how it compares when the journal’s 2004 impact factor is published next year. John McConnell Correspondence: John McConnell, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 32 Jamestown Road, London NW1 7BY, UK. References 1
Lundberg GD. The “omnipotent” Science Citation Index impact factor. Med J Aust 2003; 178: 253–54.
Reflection & Reaction is a section for comment on current topics of interest in infectious diseases, in the forms of commissioned writing and a place for you to share your views. If you would like to respond to an article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases or discuss a topical issue in infection, please send your manuscript, together with full contact details, by email to [email protected], or by fax to +44 (0)20 7424 4911, or post it to The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 32 Jamestown Road, London NW1 7BY, UK.
Infectious Diseases Vol 4 October 2004
http://infection.thelancet.com
609
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from Elsevier Ltd.
Although Thomson ISI goes to the considerable trouble of calculating and reporting impact factors, it is possible to determine citation frequency from other sources. In November of this year, Elsevier (owners of The Lancet Infectious Diseases) will launch Scopus (http://www.scopus.com/), a database of abstracts from 14 000 journals, including 6300 in life and health sciences. At launch, Scopus will include 10 years of citation data, which is more than sufficient to cover the period of publication of The Lancet Infectious Diseases. With Scopus data, I have calculated a 2003 citation frequency for Lancet Infectious Diseases articles of 6·86—ie, the average journal article published in 2001 and 2002 was cited 6·86 times during 2003. Readers with access to the Journal Citation Report on the web can get a sense of how this number compares against those journals included in the ISI subject category of infectious diseases.
A valuable feature of Scopus is the ability to analyse citation data for individual articles. Browsing this facility confirmed something I thought I knew already—commentaries are seldom cited—but also showed, unexpectedly, that articles with quirky titles fail to garner many citations, no matter how serious and worthy the actual content of the paper. The latter, admittedly anecdotal, finding raises some interesting questions about how authors go about gathering references for their own papers. Although the citation frequency calculation is rather rough and ready, it will be intriguing to see how it compares when the journal’s 2004 impact factor is published next year. John McConnell Correspondence: John McConnell, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 32 Jamestown Road, London NW1 7BY, UK. References 1
Lundberg GD. The “omnipotent” Science Citation Index impact factor. Med J Aust 2003; 178: 253–54.
Reflection & Reaction is a section for comment on current topics of interest in infectious diseases, in the forms of commissioned writing and a place for you to share your views. If you would like to respond to an article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases or discuss a topical issue in infection, please send your manuscript, together with full contact details, by email to [email protected], or by fax to +44 (0)20 7424 4911, or post it to The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 32 Jamestown Road, London NW1 7BY, UK.
Infectious Diseases Vol 4 October 2004
http://infection.thelancet.com
609
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from Elsevier Ltd.