A new method to rank the importance of scientific journals

The SCImago Journal & Country Rank database is a new free online service, which ranks scientific journals after quality. The database has been developed by Spanish researchers from the University of Granada in collaboration with countrymen from the universities of Extremadura, Alcala de Henares and Carlos III.

The SCImago database uses an algorithm (The SCImago Journal Rank – SJR) similar to Google’s PageRank and contrary to the popular impact factor, which is calculated from the average number of citations for all papers in the journal. SJR also uses citations, but weigh them so that citations from higher ranking journals have a higher impact than citations from lower ranking journals.

It is without doubt a good idea with some competition to the older impact factor, but it will probably take some time, before it becomes fully accepted in the academic world. The most prestigious scientific journals Nature and Science are only ranked 23 and 30 in the SJR database. Behind several of Nature’s smaller daughter journals (Nature Immunology for instance is number 5). However, in first place is the Annual Review of Immunology, which is also ranked in the top after impact factor.

The SCImago database also gives plenty of statistics on publications and citations for each country as well as providing the opportunity to compare journals in specific disciplines. That, however, gives some surprising results. If we for instance look in the zoology section, we find the relative small Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B ranked first, while more reputable journals are found further down, including Journal of Animal Ecology (no 8) and Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (no 19). Still the journals with the lowest rank are also the journals with a low impact factor. Incidentally a prestigious journal like Animal Behaviour is not even in the SCImago database.

Despite the small mistakes and somewhat strange rankings, the SCImago database is a good alternative to the journal ranking in Thompson’s Web of Science. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier the SCImago database, in contrast to Web of Science, is free.

Visit the SCImago database here.

Source: Nature Vol. 451. 3. Jan. 2008 p. 6.