Citation Classics in Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior: A Research Note

The number of citations a scholarly work receives is a common measure of its impact on the scientific literature; “citation classics” are the most highly cited works. The content of Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior (SLTB) citation classics is described here. The impact of SLTB citation classics is compared to their counterparts in journals having published the most suicide papers. All data are from the ISI electronic venue on the Web of Science and refer to the number of citations the top 1% of works received in each of ten journals from 1975 through August 10, 2011. Among all ten journals, SLTB ranked first in the number of works on suicide. The principle theme of half of SLTB suicide classics was literature review. The median number of citations for SLTB citation classics (top 1%) was 121.5, with a range between 96 and 279 citations, but classics from generalized psychiatric journals received more citations as anticipated. Journal impact factors explained 73% of the variance in classic’s citation counts across journals. On average, suicide classics received 30% more citations than all classics. Among a second group of five specialized suicide journals, however, SLTB ranked first in average 5‐year impact. Although SLTB produced the highest number of suicide articles of any journal, SLTB’s citation classics received fewer citations than suicide classics in high‐impact/prestige, general journals. Future work is needed to assess what predicts which SLTB articles ultimately become citation classics.     

Le JCR facteur d’impact (IF) et le SCImago Journal Rank Indicator (SJR) des revues françaises : une étude comparative

One of the major functions of academic journals is to contribute to the evaluation of research activities and scientists. Invented more than 50 years ago, the ISI impact factor (IF) became the most important indicator of the quality of journals, in spite of well-known problems and critics such as the over-representation of English-language journals. This is a specific problem for French publishers and scientists; publishing in French is not valorising. Since 2007, the new SCImago Journal Rank Indicator (SJR) offers an alternative to the IF. SJR applies the Google algorithm (PageRank) to the journals of the SCOPUS bibliographic database that indexes more journals than ISI Web of Science. The goal of our study is to compare the two indicators for French academic journals, with three questions: Which is the coverage of French journals by ISI and SCOPUS (title number, scientific disciplines)? Which are the differences of the two indicators IF and SJR for the ranking of French journals? How do they cover the French academic journal publishing market (representativity)? The results of our study of 368 French journals with IF and/or SJR are in favour of the usage of the new indicator, at least as a complement to the IF. (1) Coverage: 166 journals are indexed by ISI (45%), 345 journals are indexed by SCOPUS (94%), 143 journals are indexed by both (39%). 82% of the journals are from STM, 18% are from SS&H. In particular, SCOPUS covers much better the medical and pharmacological sciences. (2) Ranking: The correlation of IF and SJR for the 143 journals with both indicators is high (0.76). The IF better differentiates the journals than the SJR indicator (155 vs. 89 rankings). On the other side, because of the larger source database, more French titles become visible on an international level through SJR than through IF. (3) Representativity: The SJR is more interesting and representative of the French academic journal publishing market than the IF (19% vs. 9%), especially for STM titles (38% vs. 19%), much less for SS&H titles (6% vs. 2%). Nevertheless, ISI (Web of Science) and SCOPUS index journals from only a small part of the French academic publishers (10%–20%). Again, SCOPUS is more representative than the ISI dababase (17% of the publishers vs. 10%). Methodological problems and perspective of a multidimensional evaluation are discussed. Our study compares the ISI impact factor (IF) with the new SJR for 368 French academic journals with IF and/or SJR. The results: The SJR coverage is better than of the IF (94% vs. 45%), especially in medical sciences. The correlation of IF and SJR for journals with both indicators is high (0.76). The IF better differentiates the journals than the SJR indicator (155 vs. 89 rankings). The SJR coverage is more representative of the French academic journal publishing market than ISI/IF (19% vs. 9%), especially for STM titles (38% vs. 19%), less for SS&H titles (6% vs. 2%).     

A Bibliometric Analysis of Communication Journals from 2002 to 2005

Journal impact ratings are often used by authors, promotion/hiring committees, and grant review teams as a proxy for scholarship quality. Journal citation data (2002–2005) from Social Sciences Citation Index were used to rank journals in the field of communication. A journal relatedness algorithm was applied to ascertain the 19 semantically related journals in communication. The mean journal impact index was 0.77 (SD= 0.28). Human Communication Research (HCR), Personal Relationships, Journal of Communication (JOC), and Communication Research (CR) were ranked the top four journals for the study years examined. Network analysis was conducted on in‐degree (i.e., citations to journals) and out‐degree (i.e., citations from journals) data for the 19 communication journals for 2003–2005. The purpose of the network analysis was to study the citation patterns among journals in the field of communication. Data using degree centrality indicate that Communication Monographs, CR, HCR, and JOC (in alphabetical order) are the four most central journals in the field.     

Reporting Race and Ethnicity in Genetics Research: Do Journal Recommendations or Resources Matter?

Appeals to scrutinize the use of race and ethnicity as variables in genetics research notwithstanding, these variables continue to be inadequately explained and inconsistently used in research publications. In previous research, we found that published genetic research fails to follow suggestions offered for addressing this problem, such as explaining the basis on which these labels are assigned to populations. This study, an analysis of genetic research articles using race or ethnicity terms, explores possible features of journals that are associated with improved reporting of race and ethnicity in genetic research. A journal’s expressed commitment to improving how race and ethnicity are used in genetic research, demonstrated by an editorial or in its instructions to authors, was the strongest predictor of following recommendations about reporting race and ethnicity. Journal impact factor had only a limited positive effect on attention to these issues, suggesting that editorial resources associated with higher impact factor journals are not sufficient to improve practices. Our findings reiterate that race and ethnicity variables are used inconsistently in genetic research, but also shed light on how journals might improve practices by highlighting the need for scientists to carefully scrutinize the use of these variables in their work.     

The Evaluative Use of Citation Analysis for Communication Journals

This study investigated the impact of the omission of scholarly communication journals from Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) on citation-based appraisals of communication literature. Citation data were collected from reference lists in articles appearing in 27 communication journals published during 1990, including 14 not indexed by SSCI or AHCI. The 14 journals not included in SSCI or AHCI contributed 1,953, or 26%, of the 7,640 citations to authors during 1990, and 1,156, or 25%, of the 4,587 citations to journals in 1990. Twenty-seven of the 50 most frequently cited authors received 25% or more of their citations from journals omitted by SSCI and AHCI. This study found that an accurate evaluation of a scholar's articles based on citations received will not be possible until SSCI and/or AHCI choose to include the omitted journals, and that computer applications could be used to provide a convenient and inexpensive on-line citation index for communication literature. The Journal Impact Rating, a measure for use in comparing journals’impact on the basis of citations received, was introduced.     

An overview and analysis of journal operations, journal publication patterns, and journal impact in school psychology and related fields

This article describes the results of three studies designed to understand better the journal operations, publishing practices, and impact of school psychology journals in recent years. The first study presents the results of a survey focusing on journal operations and peer-review practices that was completed by 61 journal editors of school psychology and aligned journals. The second study presents the results of review and classification of all articles appearing in one volume year for nine school psychology journals (i.e., The California School Psychologist, Canadian Journal of School Psychology, Journal of Applied School Psychology, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Forum, School Psychology International, School Psychology Quarterly, and School Psychology Review). The third study employed multilevel modeling to investigate differences in the longitudinal trends of impact factor data for five school psychology journals listed in the Web of Science (i.e., Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, School Psychology Quarterly, and School Psychology Review). The article addresses implications for authors, editors, and journal editorial teams as well as the status and impact of school psychology journals.     

高校学术论文奖励政策的误区及其对策

目前高校在奖励学术论文中,存在以下问题:重刊物,轻论文;重国外,轻国内;以及重IF等方面。通过深入地分析了这些问题并提出了应对的措施,即国内外并重,重视论文被索引、引用、转载或摘录情况,尤其是对经济和社会发展的促进作用等。     

Benefits to the Spanish research community of regional content expansion in Web of Science

The regional content expansion of Thomson Reuters (formerly ISI) Web of Science added approximately 1,600 journals to the database with a regional as opposed to international focus. Web of Science coverage has grown to reflect the changing nature of global research publication trends and the additional regional journals provide greater visibility to high quality local studies beyond their traditional boundaries. The cited references indexed from the regional journals represent the influence of those journals on both the global and local research communities. This study analyses the impact of adding Spanish regional journals to Web of Science on the publication and citation patterns of Spanish research. The findings demonstrate a recent increase in research output from Spain and this is explained by more Spanish research being produced rather than due to the indexing of more Spanish journals; indeed it is shown that the majority of Spanish research is not published in Spanish journals. An analysis of Spanish journal citations uncovers a Spanish regional citation network previously undetected and serves as valuable information for evaluators of Spanish journals.     

In search of cultural diversity: recent literature in cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology

The purpose of this study was to identify where the most work on cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology is being published and who the most productive authors are. The journals that published the most articles on cross-cultural and ethnic minority issues from 1993 to 1999 and the most prolific authors on these issues were identified by PsycINFO. Cross-cultural research is cross-national, whereas ethnic minority research involves groups of color within the United States. The citation impact of these journals and authors was determined from the 1997 Social Sciences Citation Index. The results suggest that there is very limited overlap between the literatures in cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology. Most of the research in these areas is published in specialty journals, and there is a paucity of this research in prestigious journals. Perceived or actual barriers to publication in prestigious journals may cause some to seek specialty journals as outlets for research on cultural diversity. The top scholars in cross-cultural psychology are primarily men of European ancestry, whereas most of the top scholars in ethnic minority psychology are ethnic minority men and women. Strategies to increase the prominence of cultural diversity in the psychology literature include combining cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology, increasing the number of editorial board members of prestigious journals having expertise in cultural diversity, and increasing the quality of specialty journals. Psychology will remain ill-equipped to face the challenges of the new millennium without increased attention to cultural diversity.     

A model for the evaluation of the performance of scientists from the developing world,based on journal impact factors

A model is proposed, which can be used to establish sets of impact factors of journals where a specific group of researchers are publishing, such as those used by the Mexican research community. The variations in impact factors between major fields, and even within disciplines pertaining to these fields, were taken into consideration when developing the model. The sets of impact factors can be used as yardsticks to assess the performance of individual scientists in specific fields, provided that these are applied with caution and in combination with other established performance indicators. Her interests are focussed on the scientific research activity of Latin American countries, particulary Mexico, from a scientometric viewpoint.     

Editorial independence at medical journals owned by professional associations: A survey of editors

The purpose of this study was to assess the degree of editorial independence at a sample of medical journals and the relationship between the journals and their owners. We surveyed the editors of 33 medical journals owned by not-for-profit organizations (“associations”), including 10 journals represented on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (nine of which are general medical journals) and a random sample of 23 specialist journals with high impact factors that are indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information. The main outcome measures were the authority to hire, fire, and oversee the work of the editor; the editor’s tenure and financial compensation; control of the journal’s budget; publication of material about the association; and the editor’s perceptions about editorial independence and pressure over editorial content. Of the 33 editors, 23 (70%) reported having complete editorial freedom, and the remainder reported a high level of freedom (a score of ≥8, where 10 equals complete editorial freedom and 1 equals no editorial freedom). Nevertheless, a substantial minority of editors reported having received at least some pressure in recent years over editorial content from the association’s leadership (42%), senior staff (30%), or rank-and-file members (39%). The association’s board of directors has the authority to hire (48%) or fire (55%) the editor for about half of the journals, and the editor reports to the board for 10 journals (30%). Twenty-three editors (70%) are appointed for a specific term (median term =5 years). Three-fifths of the journals have no control over their profit, and the majority of journals use the association’s legal counsel and/or media relations staff. Stronger safeguards are needed to give editors protection against pressure over editorial content, including written guarantees of editorial freedom and governance structures that support those guarantees. Strong safeguards are also needed because editors may have less freedom than they believe (especially if they have not yet tested their freedom in an area of controversy).     

A comparison of conflict of interest policies at peer-reviewed journals in different scientific disciplines

Scientific journals can promote ethical publication practices through policies on conflicts of interest. However, the prevalence of conflict of interest policies and the definition of conflict of interest appear to vary across scientific disciplines. This survey of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals in 12 different scientific disciplines was conducted to assess these variations. The survey identified published conflict of interest policies in 28 of 84 journals (33%). However, when representatives of 49 of the 84 journals (58%) completed a Web-based survey about journal conflict of interest policies, 39 (80%) reported having such a policy. Frequency of policies (including those not published) varied by discipline, from 100% among general medical journals to none among physics journals. Financial interests were most frequently addressed with relation to authors; policies for reviewers most often addressed non-financial conflicts. Twenty-two of the 39 journals with policies (56%) had policies about editors’ conflicts. The highest impact journals in each category were most likely to have a published policy, and the frequency of policies fell linearly with rank; for example, policies were published by 58% of journals ranked 1 in their category, 42% of journals ranked third, and 8% of journals ranked seventh (test for trend, p = 0.003). Having a conflict of interest policy was also associated with a self-reported history of problems with conflict of interest. The prevalence of published conflict of interest policies was higher than that reported in a 1997 study, an increase that might be attributable to heightened awareness of conflict of interest issues. However, many of the journals with policies do not make them readily available and many of those policies that were available lacked clear definitions of conflict of interest or details about how disclosures would be managed during peer review and publication.     

SHOULD SIGNIFICANCE TESTS BE BANNED?

Abstract— Significance testing of null hypotheses is the standard epistemologicat method for advancing scientific knowledge in psychology, even though a has drawbacks and it leads to common inferential mistakes These mistakes include accepting the null hypothesis when it fails to be rejected, automatically interpreting rejected null hypotheses as theoretically meaningful, and failing to consider the likelihood of Type II errors Although these mistakes have been discussed repeatedly for decades, there is no evidence that the academic discussion has had an impact A group of methodologists is proposing a new approach simply ban significance tests in psychology journals The impact of a similar ban in public-health and epidemiology journals is reported     

Effects of a token reinforcement system on journal reshelving

A token reinforcement program involving two levels of token value and backup reinforcers to increase journal reshelving behavior in a large university library was experimentally evaluated. Results showed that instructions (in which signs asked users to reshelve journals) had no impact. By contrast, token reinforcement contingent on reshelving behavior led to a marked increase in journals reshelved. A return to instructions-only conditions, when data were corrected for library usage, showed an increase in unreshelved journals over the token reinforcement period, though the increase was not to baseline levels. For the next 11 months, library staff maintained a modified token program. Follow-up data collected after that interval showed that number of unreshelved journals remained markedly lower than levels at baseline and the first instructions-only period, though they were slightly higher than at the token reinforcement period. Token reinforcement of the variety employed in this study constitutes an efficient, economical means of changing the behavior of library users who fail to reshelve books and journals.     

Research Productivity and Performance of Journals in the Creativity Sciences: A Bibliometric Analysis

A bibliometric approach was employed to analyze the research productivity and performance of creativity studies between 1965 and 2012. A dataset was constructed using all publications and citations retrieved from four key journals that publish creativity research: Journal of Creative Behavior (JCB), Gifted Child Quarterly (GCQ), Creativity Research Journal (CRJ), and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (PACA). Major findings in this study include: (a) During the study period, the four journals have published 1,891 articles on creativity and they have been cited 11,709 times; (b) the impact factors of the four journals increased from lower than .50 in 2002 to over 1.0 in 2012; in 2012 PACA had the highest impact factor, followed by CRJ; (c) JCB published the most creativity papers and CRJ had the most citations; (d) about a third of the articles published in the four journals have never been cited. Implications for the field of creativity are discussed.     

Relative Influence of Professional Counseling Journals

The authors used social network analysis of citation data to study the flow of information and relative influence of 17 professional counseling journals. Although the Journal of Counseling & Development ranked very highly in all measures of journal influence, several division journals emerged as key players in the flow of information within the counseling profession. Results highlight the many facets of journal influence and the fallacy of using single measures, such as journal impact factor, to rank professional counseling journals.     

Age and scholarly impact

The claim that older scientists generate research of lower quality than do younger scientists was tested through two analyses in which the age distribution of authors of frequently cited articles in psychology journals was compared with the age distribution of authors of low-impact articles published in the same journals. Most high-impact articles were published by relatively young psychologists, but so were most low-impact articles. When allowance was made for relative numerical representation, there was no evidence that publications from older scientists have less impact. Results are discussed in the context of methodological issues in evaluation of relations between age and scientific achievement.     

Citation Networks of Communication Journals, 1977–1985 Cliques and Positions,Citations Made and Citations Received

This article analyzes the pattern of citations among all communication journals covered by the first nine years of the Journal Citation Reports volume of the Social Sciences Citation Index (Garfield, 1977–1985). It approaches these analyses from two perspectives: (1) bibliometric analysis of citation flows, ratios, and impact factors, and (2) network analysis of both cohesion-based and position-based citation patterns. The field of communication exhibits clear clustering and inbreeding, consisting of cliques of interpersonal journals, mass media journals, and residual isolate journals. Citation patterns within and across these cliques have been very stable from 1977 through 1985. The cohesion analyses show that Human Communication Research and Communication Education provide weak ties from mass media journals to interpersonal communication journals. The Journal of Communication is cited the most strongly by the most journals, and provides, by means of citations, bidirectional channels for the flow of scientific information between mass media journals and interpersonal journals. The positional analyses show that the set of journals that has similar citing patterns is somewhat different from the set of journals that is cited similarly. In particular, the set of sources for the research reported in articles in these journals is not similar to the set of journals that refer to the articles in these journals.     

Beyond inference by eye: Statistical and graphing practices in JEAB, 1992‐2017

Debates about the utility of p values and correct ways to analyze data have inspired new guidelines on statistical inference by the American Psychological Association (APA) and changes in the way results are reported in other scientific journals, but their impact on the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) has not previously been evaluated. A content analysis of empirical articles published in JEAB between 1992 and 2017 investigated whether statistical and graphing practices changed during that time period. The likelihood that a JEAB article reported a null hypothesis significance test, included a confidence interval, or depicted at least one figure with error bars has increased over time. Features of graphs in JEAB, including the proportion depicting single‐subject data, have not changed systematically during the same period. Statistics and graphing trends in JEAB largely paralleled those in mainstream psychology journals, but there was no evidence that changes to APA style had any direct impact on JEAB. In the future, the onus will continue to be on authors, reviewers and editors to ensure that statistical and graphing practices in JEAB continue to evolve without interfering with characteristics that set the journal apart from other scientific journals.