Great Expectatrics: Great Papers,Great Journals,Great Econometrics

The article discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). Some analysis and comparisons are also made with data from the SciVerse Scopus database. The various RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analyzed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 2YIF without journal self-citations (2YIF*), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), Self-citation Threshold Approval Rating (STAR), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored – By Even The Authors). The RAM are analyzed for 10 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences of the alternative RAM, finds that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals, while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM, and shows that the harmonic mean of 13 RAM provides more robust journal rankings than relying solely on 2YIF.     

Journal Self-citation Analysis of Some Chinese Sci-tech Periodicals

This study investigates self-citation rates of 222 Chinese journals within seven groups including 76 journals of agronomy (34.2 percent), 57 of biology (25.7 percent), 28 of environmental science and technology (12.6 percent), 15 of forestry (6.8 percent), 24 of academic journals of agricultural university (10.8 percent), 9 of aquatic sciences (4.1 percent), and 13 of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine (5.9 percent). The average self-citation rates range from 2 percent to 67 percent in 2006, 1 percent to 68 percent in 2007 and 0 percent to 67 percent in 2008. There is a significant difference in self-citation rate between most groups of journals. The self-citation rate is positively and significantly correlated with the self-citation rate in 2006 for all 222 journals (N = 222, R² = 0.194, P = 0.004) (P < 0.05). However, the self-citation rate is not significantly correlated with the journal's impact factor in 2007 (N = 222, R² = 0.114, P = 0.091) and 2008 (N = 222, R² = 0.112, P = 0.096) (P < 0.05) for the 222 journals. The relationship between self-citation rate and journal impact factor is discussed.     

Smithsonian

Abstract

To provide bibliometric evidence for Chinese medical journals to be considered for the evaluation system of core journals, the authors have undertaken a comparative study on bibliometric characteristics between Chinese core journals and common journals (journals not included in A Guide to the Core Journals of China). There are 203 Chinese medical core journals and 440 Chinese common journals. Impact factor, ratio of articles supported with funding sources (foundation), total yearly pages and average article length of core journals are significantly higher than those of common journals in China. Medical editors can take effective measures to improve academic levels and journal impact by considering factors from this study, such as having a proper and short publication cycle, increasing the impact factor, concentrating on articles with foundation support, publishing more high-impact papers, increasing substantive content and publishing more articles with abstracts.     

How are journal impact,prestige and article influence related? An application to neuroscience

The paper analyzes the leading journals in neurosciences using quantifiable research assessment measures (RAM), highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM, shows that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics of highly cited journals, and shows that some other RAM have low correlations with each other, and hence add significant informational value. Alternative RAM are discussed for the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily include the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor, immediacy (or zero-year impact factor), Eigenfactor score, article influence score, C3PO (citation performance per paper online), h-index, Zinfluence, PI-BETA (papers ignored by even the authors), 2-year and historical self-citation threshold approval ratings, impact factor inflation, and cited article influence (CAI). The RAM are analyzed for 26 highly cited journals in the ISI category of neurosciences. The paper finds that the Eigenfactor score and PI-BETA are not highly correlated with the other RAM scores, so that they convey additional information regarding journal rankings, that article influence is highly correlated with some existing RAM, so that it has little informative incremental value, and that CAI has additional informational value to that of article influence. Harmonic mean rankings of the 13 RAM criteria for the 26 highly cited journals are also presented. Emphasizing the 2YIF of a journal to the exclusion of other informative RAM criteria is shown to lead to a distorted evaluation of journal performance and influence, especially given the informative value of several other RAM.     

Asian and Pacific Region Authorship Characteristics in Leading Library and Information Science Journals

Authorship characteristics from the Asian and Pacific region in the top twenty journals in library and information science are studied. Data was collected searching the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science databases. Major findings of this study are: there are a total of 1,317 articles for the period 1967 to 2005; the most productive countries are, in rank order, Australia, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines; and 77.6 percent of authors in the top twenty library and information science journals contributed a single article. Among the library science journals about 50 percent were written by multiple authors, while 73.1 percent of articles in the information science journals were written collaboratively. The most productive individual authors in the region are reported. The strongest collaboration within the region took place between Australia and China; China and Singapore; Australia and New Zealand.     

Weighted product index and its two-independent-sample comparison based on weighted sensitivity and specificity

Background: On the basis of statistical methods about index S (S = SEN × SPE), we develop a new weighted ways (weighted product index S_w) of combining sensitivity and specificity with user-defined weights. Methods: The new weighted product index S_w is defined as S_w = (SEN) (Youden 1950)^2w × (SPE) (Youden 1950) ^2(1?w) Results: For the large sample, the test statistics Z of two-independent-sample weighted product indices can either be a monotonous increasing/decreasing function or a no-monotonous function of weight w. Type I error of this statistics can be guaranteed close to the nominal level of 5%, which is more conservative than the weighted Youden index from simulation.     

Graphs in Scientific Publications

Graphical communication in scientific publications can be improved; a detailed analysis of all graphs in one volume of Science revealed that 30% had errors. Graphs are used more in some disciplines than in others; a survey of 57 journals revealed natural science journals use far more graphs than mathematical or social science journals. Usage studies such as these provide important information for developing four other areas: new graphical methods for data presentation, guidelines, software, and human graphical perception.     

Serials Staffing for the Twenty-First Century and Beyond

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the technical services issues relating to the future of serials staffing, particularly for serials catalogers. Trends in cataloging procedures, technical services reorganizations, and the changing roles of professional and paraprofessional employees affect present and future responsibilities of serials work. The author also examines major technological innovations that have affected staffing needs, including journals in electronic format, vendor-supplied holdings data, automatic generation of bibliographic records, and the potential implications of proposed serials cataloging rule changes on the way in which serials will be managed in libraries. Serials Review 2002; 28:195–200.     

A comparison study of effectiveness and robustness of robust economic designs of T2 chart using genetic algorithm

ABSTRACT

Recently, researchers have tried to design the T² chart economically to achieve the minimum possible quality cost; however, when T² chart is designed, it is important to consider multiple scenarios. This research presents the robust economic designs of the T² chart where there is more than one scenario. An illustrative example is used to demonstrate the effect of the model parameters on the optimal designs. The genetic algorithm optimization method is employed to obtain the optimal designs. Simulation studies show that the robust economic designs of T² chart are more effective than traditional economic design in practice.