Updated - Impact

Impact

In this chapter

What is impact?

Impact metrics

Maximase impact

What is impact?

'In general, impact refers to the effect or influence something has on a particular person, situation, or community. In the context of academic publishing, impact often refers to the significance and influence of scholarly research. Impact can be measured at an article, journal, or portfolio level via different metrics and at different time points.

WHY DO WE FOCUS ON DRIVING AND MEASURING IMPACT?

WHY FOR RESEARCHERS? (click)

WHY FOR US? (click)

• We support researchers in making their research worldwide visible.
• We support them in driving their own visibility.
• In doing so, we position ourselves as respected players in the researcher's ecosystem.

• Driving impact: offer researchers many attractive publication outlets - drives submissions and editor recruitment.
• Measuring Impact: gain understanding (citations) of the academic recognition of research published in our journals

Impact metrics

On the next slides, we will discuss the following impact metrics. (Click elements in the table to learn more.)

Journal Metrics

Article-level metrics

• Views
• Downloads
• Total Citations

• Views

Usage metrics:

• Downloads

• Citations

Most commonly used: Journal Impact Factor (Clarivate), CiteScore (Scopus)

External metrics:

The Journal Impact Factor is defined as the count of all citations scored each year to any publication in the 2 prior years divided by the total number of citable items.

Impact Factor

2017

2019

Journal Impact Factor is calculated using Web of Science data and is a static metric released once per year. Source items:

• Original research articles
• Review articles
• Proceedings papers
• Technical notes

Impact Factor

EXAMPLE:

citation in a given year

Impact Factor 2019 value =

publications in two previous years

2017

2018

2020

2019

2016

2015

• Different journals can be at different stages of their development lifecycle. Indexation into the Web of Science Core collection allows journals to be provided with an Impact Factor, and this is something we work towards with all journals in our portfolio.

Impact Factor

• Frontiers is the 6th largest and 3rd most cited publisher on the market. Following the 2022 release of the Web of Science Group's Journal Citation Report (JCR 2022) and Scopus' CiteScore, 51 of the journals published by Frontiers have a Journal Impact Factor, and 73 journals have a CiteScore.

The CiteScore is calculated using Scopus citation and publication data and is a dynamic metric that allows evaluation of a journal's performance throughout the year.

CiteScore

2017

2019

CiteScore uses Scopus data. Scopus separates journals into subject area categories. A single journal is often in more than one category. The journals in each category are ranked according to their CiteScore. Source items: original research articles, review articles, proceedings papers, book chapters, data papers.

CiteScore

EXAMPLE:

citation in the 4-year window

CiteScore 2019 value =

publication in the 4-year window

2018

2016

2017

2019

2020

2015

2017

2016

2018

2019

2015

2020

Citations and Documents in 4 year-window (A and B are the same)

Impact Factor and CiteScore are two of the main Journal metrics we track and focus on with our journals. If a Journal is provided with an IF or CiteScore, this is included in the main webpage.

Impact Factor vs CiteScore

if your journal is not indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection and/or Scoipus, respectively, for IF and CiteScore, how can you work towards ensuring it is ready for an application?

Share your thought in the comment section.

Impact Factor and CiteScore

IMPACT FACTOR (click)

CITESCORE (click)

• Calculated on Web of Science citation and publication data
• Numerator is 1-year citation window
• Denominator is 2 previous years' publication window
• Only Original Research and Reviews counted in the denominator
• Static metric released once a year
• Maximum of 3 categories per journal
• Provided to all journals included in the Web of Science Core Collection

• Calculated on Scopus citation and publication data
• Numerator is a 4-year citation window
• Denominator is 4-year window publications
• All article types considered in the denominator
• CiteScore Tracker allows for dynamic evaluation of the title's impact performance throughout the year
• Journals might be indexed under a large number of categories
• Provided to all journals included in Scopus

Other impact metrics

Click each name to learn more about other article-level metrics.

The Altmetrics Attention Score aims to capture other sources of impact in addition to citations to academic articles. The 'donut' visualization of the metric incorporates data from a wide variety of scholarly platforms, social media, news, and public policy documents. Click her for more details.

Altmetrics

At Frontiers Dimentions' Field Citation Ratio (FCR) is sometimes used as a normalized citation impact metric, as it is easy to access and understand. This metric has been designed to provide a fairer view of impact by indicating relative citation performance and an article compared to similarly aged articles in its subject area.

Field Citation Ratio

What do you think are the best ways to maximise the impact of a journal?

Feel free to add them into the comment section. Lastly, you can access the annual journal reports by clicking here.

To get the visibility of your journal, you can take different actions:

Maximise impact

• Use Social Media (Twitter)

• Attend conferences (booth, flyers, and meeting speakers)

• Run marketing campaigns (Twitter) with Marketing and Communication Team

• Write blog posts and press releases