Last week Thomson Reuters issued their annual journal impact factor statistics. For those in the scholarly publishing business, these metrics are indicators of a journal’s quality and how it stacks up against comparable journals.
In short, the “impact factor,” which is the most commonly cited statistic, measures how often articles published in the previous two years were cited compared to the number of papers published. That is, it assesses how “impactful” the last two years of a journal’s papers were by counting the number of citations made in 2012 to papers published in 2010 and 2011 and dividing by the number of papers published in these two years.
Like all statistical measures, the “impact factor” needs to be considered in context, and the Thomson Reuters’ website provides a comprehensive explanation. The company has also developed a suite of other metrics to provide more perspective on a journal’s overall impact on the literature, such as the value of its older articles.
So – how did ACerS’ three journals do? Pretty darn good, as this table shows.
2012 IF – Materials Science Ceramics Category
Journal | Total cites | 2012 impact factor | 5-year impact factor | Cited half-life | Rank in category |
Journal of the American Ceramic Society | 30,724 | 2.107 | 2.392 | >10.0 | 2 |
International Journal of Applied Glass Science | 112 | 1.548 | 1.548 | 2.2 | 6 |
International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology | 1,103 | 1.153 | 1.403 | 4.8 | 7 |
Our flagship Journal of the American Ceramic Society maintained its strong position in the materials science ceramics category and earned the second highest impact factor for journals in its category. The first place journal, Journal of the European Ceramic Society, had an IF of 2.360. However, the IF metric alone tells an incomplete story. For example, the JACerS citation half-life—an indicator of long-term quality of articles—is much greater than that of JECerS. The 5-year impact factor confirms the long “shelf life” of JACerS articles.
ACerS’ newer journals continue to perform well, too. The International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology, now in its tenth year, continues to be an important journal, as evidenced by its half-life spanning almost half of its existence.
This is the first year that the International Journal of Applied Glass Science was eligible for an IF, and editors L. David Pye and Mario Affatigato were pleased with the results.
“We attribute this strong start to the scholarship of authors submitting papers, a dedicated group of associate editors and reviewers, great support by the ACerS editorial staff, and the advice, service, and encouragement given by our publisher, Wiley, from the very beginning,” Pye said in an email. Pye and Affatigato say they are “optimistic that this good start can be improved upon, thereby doing its part in advancing the field of glass science and engineering.”
JACerS is published monthly, Int. J. of App. Ceramic Technology publishes six times per year, and Int. J. of App. Glass Science is published quarterly. ACerS’ publising partner, Wiley, has collected the most-often cited papers from our journals and made them available for free for a time. Visit Wiley’s Online LIbrary to see where ceramic and glass science is making its biggest impacts.
Full access to all three journals is a benefit available to all ACerS members. Membership dues are $120 per year—that works out to only $5.45 per issue, and that doesn’t even count the other great benefits of ACerS membership!
Visit the ACerS website to become a member and to learn more about other member benefits, such as meetings, books, directories, and the ACerS Bulletin.
Author
Eileen De Guire
CTT Categories
- Basic Science
- Glass