Abstract
Taking the interactive open access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics as an example, this study examines whether Thomson Reuters, for the Journal Citation Reports, correctly calculates the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of a journal that publishes several versions of a manuscript within a two-stage publication process. The results of this study show that the JIF of the journal is not overestimated through the two-stage publication process.
References
Amin, M., & Mabe, M. A. (2003). Impact factors: Use and abuse. Medicina-Buenos Aires, 63(4), 347–354.
Archambault, É., & Larivière, V. (2009). History of the journal impact factor: Contingencies and consequences. Scientometrics, 79(3), 635–649.
Bornmann, L., Leydesdorff, L., & Marx, W. (2007). Citation environment of Angewandte Chemie. CHIMIA, 61(3), 104–109.
Braun, T., & Glänzel, W. (1995). The sweet and sour of journal citation rates. On a source of error in computing impact factors. The Chemical Intelligencer, 31–32.
Garfield, E. (1976). Significant journals of science. Nature, 264(5587), 609–615.
Glänzel, W., & Moed, H. F. (2002). Journal impact measures in bibliometric research. Scientometrics, 53(2), 171–193.
Koop, T., & Pöschl, U. (2006). Systems: an open, two-stage peer-review journal. The editors of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics explain their journal’s approach. Retrieved 26 June 2006, from http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/nature04988.html.
Kumar, V., Upadhyay, S., & Medhi, B. (2009). Impact of the impact factor in biomedical research: Its use and misuse. Singapore Medical Journal, 50(8), 752–755.
Kurtz, M., & Brody, T. (2006). The impact loss to authors and readers. In N. Jacobs (Ed.), Open access: Key strategic, technical and economic aspects (pp. 45–54). Oxford: Chandos Publication.
Magri, M.-H., & Solari, A. (1996). The SCI Journal Citation Reports: A potential tool for studying journals? Scientometrics, 35(1), 93–117.
Marx, W. (2001). Angewandte Chemie in light of the “Science Citation Index”. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 40(1), 139–143.
McVeigh, M. E. (2010). Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Moed, H. F., van Leeuwen, T. N., & Reedijk, J. (1996). A critical analysis of the journal impact factors of Angewandte Chemie and the Journal of the American Chemical Society—inaccuracies in published impact factors based on overall citations only. Scientometrics, 37(1), 105–116.
Pendlebury, D. A. (2009). The use and misuse of journal metrics and other citation indicators. Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis, 57(1), 1–11. doi:10.1007/s00005-009-0008-y.
Pöschl, U. (2004). Interactive journal concept for improved scientific publishing and quality assurance. Learned Publishing, 17(2), 105–113.
Retzer, V., & Jurasinski, G. (2009). Towards objectivity in research evaluation using bibliometric indicators: A protocol for incorporating complexity. Basic and Applied Ecology, 10(5), 393–400. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2008.09.001.
Todd, P. A. (2009). Ambiguity, bias, and compromise: An abc of bibliometric-based performance indicators Introduction. Environment and Planning A, 41(4), 765–771. doi:10.1068/a424.
Acknowledgements
The research project is investigating quality assurance of interactive open access journals and is supported by a grant from the Max Planck Society (Munich, Germany). We thank Marie E. McVeigh, Senior Manager JCR and Bibliographic Policy at Thomson Reuters, for her comments on a previous version of our paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bornmann, L., Neuhaus, C. & Daniel, HD. The effect of a two-stage publication process on the Journal Impact Factor: a case study on the interactive open access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics . Scientometrics 86, 93–97 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0250-4
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0250-4