Impact Score Alternatives
Some of the other metrics which can help you judge the Journal impact are Citescore, h-Index, mention and share of Journal articles on social media, Downloads, Views, etc.
Citescore
Citescore is another commonly used metric used like an impact factor, to measure journal impact in Scopus. It measures a yearly average number of citations to recently published articles in that Journal. Citescore was launched in December 2016 by Elsevier.
CiteScore metric combines eight different indicators: CiteScore, CiteScore Percentile, CiteScore Rank, Citation Count, CiteScore Quartiles, CiteScore Tracker, Document Count and Percentage Cited.
Citescore Calculations
Citescore is defined as the ratio of the number of citations a journal receives in the latest four years (Including the year of calculation) to the number of publications (published documents) of that Journal in those four years.
Important Facts About Citescore
- Citescore calculations are done annually and hence show the average number of citations for the entire calendar year. Moreover, its estimates are updated each month and therefore provides the latest performance indicators of a particular Journal.
- Citescore cannot be compared between subject fields because its value does not include field normalization. To compare the Journals of the same subject categories or domains, one should use metrics like SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) or SNIP as these metric are field normalized.
h-Index
The h-index is another way of measuring the productivity or impact of the Journal. The h-index is defined as the maximum value of h such that the given Journal has published h papers, and each of them is cited for at least h number of times in a specific time.
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) is another commonly used metric to measure the scholarly influence or impact of the Journal by accounting for the number of cites/citations and the prestige of the citing journals.
It is based on the concept called eigenvector centrality, which is commonly used in network theory. This metric is a size-independent measure that ranks journals based on their average prestige per article.
Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)
Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) considers the weightage of the total number of citations received in a discipline while calculating a journal's impact. This method of impact calculation normalizes for differences in citation practices between fields so that a single citation is given greater importance or values where citations are less frequent or common in that field.
Unlike the well-known journal impact factor, SNIP corrects for differences in citation practices between scientific fields, thereby allowing for more accurate between-field comparisons of citation impact.
Ways to Increase Impact Score of Your Journal
We have now understood the definition of the Impact Score, its calculation method, the importance of the Impact Score, and how to find it. Now, we will go through the ways through which we can increase the Impact Score of a Journal.
Following are some ways that can help to increase the Impact Score of a Journal. Some of these ideas are based on theory, some on practice and few on experience. These methods can help you get more citations for your journal, improve its quality and increase its prominence.
Let us now scroll these go through these methods, and understand what they have in store for us.
Target the right audience
Designing the products keeping the intended target base in mind always helps. This method applies here also. If your articles or research topics have a dedicated area to focus on, chances of them being cited by the scientists increase. If the research area is vague and not specific, the researcher or scientist may not find anything of use.
The focus might be on society, a particular group, scientists, teachers or anybody. Just remember to have a target audience.
Sometimes Peer-Review helps!
This is a known fact that if someone with a good reputation in your field gives a statement for your work, that work automatically gets few stars of appreciation.
In the research field, work that is peer-reviewed often comes up with better quality. This work has gained more trust and hence, gets cited more.
Taking advantage of affiliations
Organizations or groups with innovative and diverse research topics, more originality, and a high number of publications are generally cited more than others. They have an excellent probability of showing up in the references thereby, increasing their citation.
If your journal doesn't belong to a very famous authority, one can try for affiliation with a known and reputed organization.
Add topic-wise description for quick scanning
A small description of the various headings like abstract, hypotheses, key findings and observations, inference, conclusion etc., will give an insight to the reader of the article. This will help in a quick scan of the article and increase its chances of getting cited.
Add a descriptive scope
As stated earlier, if the title and scope are descriptive, readers tend to get a better understanding of the article. This will bring more traffic and increase the citation.
By a descriptive scope, we mean that it should clearly define the area of the research and the methods that have been undertaken to come up with the research.
Diversify your list of topics covered
A single topic may have many branches and sub-branches, giving rise to a diverse range of topics in that area. Sometimes, these ideas don't strike anyone, and this can be of much help if encouraged by telling them. This will attract more authors. The result will also be a diversified one.
Develop new article types to attract a diverse range of authors.
Keep flexible submission options
Also, if the submission is getting accepted in multiple formats, people tend to submit more. Sometimes, authors are not comfortable with a particular format and do not choose a journal for publication. If there is leniency in this, it can help.
Promotion of few articles might help
Advertisem*nt and marketing is a key these days to reach more audience. Often articles that have been published long back might find their relevance in the present time. The editor or the committee should keep track of such topics and promote them. This will increase the citations of the article. One thing that this activity requires is time and effort from the team.
Make your articles easily reachable
In today's scenario, where things are available easily, without much effort, if you ask for a lot of details or a heavy price from the readers, there are very few chances of your articles being cited by the authors.
It takes few minutes for the author to scan an article and if there are fewer hindrances maybe, in terms of article fee or filling up details, the article will be read and cited more.
A journal can always have some free articles to attract readers and citations.
Be real! Show your true self
Few things cannot be pretended. They have to be real. For example, take the case of the affiliations of the journal, the deciding committee, the Editorial Board Members, Peer Reviewers. If these things are mentioned and include high ranking individuals, they will attract the authors to publish in your journal.
Keep your ethics and transparency high
A clean, ethical policy will always help in giving credibility to any organization. In this way, people trust your organization to submit their articles. There are organizations like the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) that help in improving the trustworthiness of a journal. Joining such a committee will boost your credibility.
Develop a Niche
In case your journal targets a specific set of authors, it is again very good. This way, you will attract a specific set of topics for the journal. There will be a niche in your journal, and unnecessary diversions can be avoided. Instead of a wide range of issues, a specific set will give your journal a reputation for that research area.
Flexible Review Process
The review process and schedule are a few of the main criteria for selecting a journal for publication. Sometimes, the publication is a part of their curriculum or their job, and it will then require a deadline. Also, few topics are relevant in the present time and may become outdated if they don't get a chance to get published. That is why there must be a quick and robust review system with a shorter turnaround time.
Keep user-friendly ads
Having advertisem*nts is always a good income idea. But one thing needs to be ensured that it doesn't affect the user experience. The reader should not get distracted from the primary task, or the placement of the ads should be such that it doesn't disturb or irritate the reader.
Publish Review Articles
Review articles of good literature can help the authors quickly compare various types of research carried out. It might be of interest to them and thus, attract more citations. Also, articles having trending and good topics can be combined together and published. This will act as a one-stop point for the authors and readers to read, understand and cite.
Try using SEO in articles
One tool that helps you rank on top in search engine results is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). With this method, you can optimize your content, which will lead to more citations for your journal. Optimization of academic articles is called Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO). It ensures that the article is crawled and ranks high in search results.
These tips might be applicable to a few journals and might not work for a few. There is no compulsion to follow all the above-mentioned methods. Select what best applies to you.
Our Attempt at this idea...
The ideas that we have mentioned here are based on our knowledge and experience. We are still learning and will continue to add on to this list as and when we come up with something new.
Credits and Sources
- Journal Impact Factor, https://clarivate.com/
- Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), https://www.scimagojr.com/
- Find Impact Factor
- Impact Factor: The Complete Guide
