What is the difference between SJR (Scimago Journal & Country Rank) and IF (Impact Factor)?
Thanks in advance.
Yours sincerely, Mourad
I think this article will help you a lot.
The “Impact Factor” (IF) is the major indicator of scientific importance of journals [1]. IF is calculated annually by Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and by definition in any given year is the ratio of the number of articles cited all citable documents published in the two previous years to all citable documents in the same period of time[2]. Despite its widespread acceptance in the scientific world, IF has been criticized recently on many accounts [3–6]: including lack of quality assessment of the citations, influence of self citation, English language bias, etc. Eigenfactor score (ES) is another index of journal scientific impact which uses the similar algorithm as Google’s PageRank. For calculating ES an iterative method is used and journals are considered to be influential if they are cited more often by other prestigious journals [1]. ESs are available in the special website of Washington University [7]. SCImago journal rank indicator (SJR) is another index which uses similar method as the ES. However, this index is based on SCOPUS database which has much wider indexed journals com- pared to ISI [6, 8, 9].
IF, its shortcomings and differences with SJR and ES
IF is a traditional index used by researchers for ranking scientific journals. Despite its widespread use, several shortcomings of the IF have been brought up and new indices of journal quality are being used in addition to IF. Two of these indices are SJR and ES. For calculation of SJR and ES, the same algorithm similar to Google page rank is used with the major advantage of incorporating the source of citations: citations by more prestigious journals would have more influence compared to other journals [10]. The main difference between these two indicators is databases they use for citation analysis. ISI is used for ES and SCOPUS is used for SJR. Another major difference is the time window of ES and SJR calculations. ES uses five previous years and SJR uses three previ- ous years as the time window. Both SJR and ES are freely available [7, 9] which can make them more available than IF. Overall, correlations between the above-mentioned indices of journal quality are high [11].
Journals not indexed in ISI web of knowledge
Not all journals are indexed in ISI and for quality assessment of these journals, researchers need other indices. For journals indexed in SCOPUS, researchers can use SJR. Researchers also should always note that many journals which are not indexed in ISI can be of very high quality and using only IF can be very erroneous.
English language bias
A major shortcoming of IF is English language bias. Journals published in English would get cited more frequently [6, 12, 13]. Scientific communities support their local journals and as suggested by Currie et al can demonstrate “micro-level language bias” [13].
Strategies to boost IF
Many editors use strategies to boost IFs of their journals. These strategies include self citation, tendency to publish review articles, and decreasing the number of citable articles (by decreasing the number of published articles or increasing items such as letter to editors, interesting images, etc which are not considered citable by ISI) [6].
Self citation
Self citation is a method to increase the IF. High self citation in journals publishing non-English articles can support the suggestion of “micro-level language bias” which means that local communities tend to publish in their own language in their local journals. SJR and ES are not affected by self citations [6, 14].
Publishing review articles
Generally review articles receive twice as many citations as original articles [15] and journals mainly publishing review articles can have very high IF.
None of the three metrics we mentioned (IF, SJR, and ES) takes into account the type of cited articles. However ES does not have any denominator and journals with lower number of citable articles tend to have lower ES [16]. Since the number of citable items in journals publishing only review articles is low, ES can indirectly account for the type of the cited articles.
Effect of non-citable items
ISI considers original articles and review articles as the only citable items in each journal and other types of items are not used in the denominator of IF. Some journals publish considerable amount of the articles as correspondence, interesting image, and letter to editors which can increase the IF.
SJR uses a denominator which includes almost all types of items. This shows that SJR is less influenced by these “non-citable” items and can be a better indicator for journals using the above-mentioned strategy to boost the IF.
Open access policy
An important issue which can affect all three evaluated indices is whether journal articles are free or need subscription since open access journals usually get more citations [17].
Final word
Despite widespread use of IF as the quality indicator of journals, several shortcomings of IF should be born in mind while using this index. Several journals are only indexed in SCOPUS and their only measure of quality would be SJR. SJR and ES can be more accurate quality index in certain conditions.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141116123259-267597660-comparison-between-impact-factor-if-scimago-journal-rank-indicator-sjr-for-scientometrics
Again , the IF for IEEE access was 1.2 odd now since 2016 it risen to 3,6 odd so there needs to a difference . IEEE is global and there are many many journals in a country . You need to carefully look into it ...
Dear Prof. Abdul Kayom Md Khairuzzaman
Many thanks to you for following and supporting the discussion. I appreciate your presence. Recommended
Yours sincerely, Mourad
I think this article will help you a lot.
The “Impact Factor” (IF) is the major indicator of scientific importance of journals [1]. IF is calculated annually by Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and by definition in any given year is the ratio of the number of articles cited all citable documents published in the two previous years to all citable documents in the same period of time[2]. Despite its widespread acceptance in the scientific world, IF has been criticized recently on many accounts [3–6]: including lack of quality assessment of the citations, influence of self citation, English language bias, etc. Eigenfactor score (ES) is another index of journal scientific impact which uses the similar algorithm as Google’s PageRank. For calculating ES an iterative method is used and journals are considered to be influential if they are cited more often by other prestigious journals [1]. ESs are available in the special website of Washington University [7]. SCImago journal rank indicator (SJR) is another index which uses similar method as the ES. However, this index is based on SCOPUS database which has much wider indexed journals com- pared to ISI [6, 8, 9].
IF, its shortcomings and differences with SJR and ES
IF is a traditional index used by researchers for ranking scientific journals. Despite its widespread use, several shortcomings of the IF have been brought up and new indices of journal quality are being used in addition to IF. Two of these indices are SJR and ES. For calculation of SJR and ES, the same algorithm similar to Google page rank is used with the major advantage of incorporating the source of citations: citations by more prestigious journals would have more influence compared to other journals [10]. The main difference between these two indicators is databases they use for citation analysis. ISI is used for ES and SCOPUS is used for SJR. Another major difference is the time window of ES and SJR calculations. ES uses five previous years and SJR uses three previ- ous years as the time window. Both SJR and ES are freely available [7, 9] which can make them more available than IF. Overall, correlations between the above-mentioned indices of journal quality are high [11].
Journals not indexed in ISI web of knowledge
Not all journals are indexed in ISI and for quality assessment of these journals, researchers need other indices. For journals indexed in SCOPUS, researchers can use SJR. Researchers also should always note that many journals which are not indexed in ISI can be of very high quality and using only IF can be very erroneous.
English language bias
A major shortcoming of IF is English language bias. Journals published in English would get cited more frequently [6, 12, 13]. Scientific communities support their local journals and as suggested by Currie et al can demonstrate “micro-level language bias” [13].
Strategies to boost IF
Many editors use strategies to boost IFs of their journals. These strategies include self citation, tendency to publish review articles, and decreasing the number of citable articles (by decreasing the number of published articles or increasing items such as letter to editors, interesting images, etc which are not considered citable by ISI) [6].
Self citation
Self citation is a method to increase the IF. High self citation in journals publishing non-English articles can support the suggestion of “micro-level language bias” which means that local communities tend to publish in their own language in their local journals. SJR and ES are not affected by self citations [6, 14].
Publishing review articles
Generally review articles receive twice as many citations as original articles [15] and journals mainly publishing review articles can have very high IF.
None of the three metrics we mentioned (IF, SJR, and ES) takes into account the type of cited articles. However ES does not have any denominator and journals with lower number of citable articles tend to have lower ES [16]. Since the number of citable items in journals publishing only review articles is low, ES can indirectly account for the type of the cited articles.
Effect of non-citable items
ISI considers original articles and review articles as the only citable items in each journal and other types of items are not used in the denominator of IF. Some journals publish considerable amount of the articles as correspondence, interesting image, and letter to editors which can increase the IF.
SJR uses a denominator which includes almost all types of items. This shows that SJR is less influenced by these “non-citable” items and can be a better indicator for journals using the above-mentioned strategy to boost the IF.
Open access policy
An important issue which can affect all three evaluated indices is whether journal articles are free or need subscription since open access journals usually get more citations [17].
Final word
Despite widespread use of IF as the quality indicator of journals, several shortcomings of IF should be born in mind while using this index. Several journals are only indexed in SCOPUS and their only measure of quality would be SJR. SJR and ES can be more accurate quality index in certain conditions.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141116123259-267597660-comparison-between-impact-factor-if-scimago-journal-rank-indicator-sjr-for-scientometrics
Dear Prof. Aparna
Many thanks for supporting the discussion, but really I can not understand what you have written. Can you clarify, please?
Best regards
Many thanks dear. Md Bokhtiar Rahman for this wonderful explanation. Recommeded
Best regards, Mourad
Md Bokhtiar Rahman thanks a lot for your informative clarification.
Dear Colleagues, Dear Dr. Md Bokhtiar Rahman
Thank you so much for invitation, Really our colleague Dr. Md Bokhtiar Rahman presented an excellent explanation and rich answer, beside that you can visit the following website for more professional detail. I forgot to say thank you dear Dr. Ramin Sadeghi,(this article writer).
Regards, Emad
http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php
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