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How can journal impact factors be normalized across fields of science? An assessment in terms of percentile ranks and fractional counts

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  • Loet Leydesdorff
  • Ping Zhou
  • Lutz Bornmann

Abstract

Using the CD‐ROM version of the Science Citation Index 2010 (N = 3,705 journals), we study the (combined) effects of (a) fractional counting on the impact factor (IF) and (b) transformation of the skewed citation distributions into a distribution of 100 percentiles and six percentile rank classes (top‐1%, top‐5%, etc.). Do these approaches lead to field‐normalized impact measures for journals? In addition to the 2‐year IF (IF2), we consider the 5‐year IF (IF5), the respective numerators of these IFs, and the number of Total Cites, counted both as integers and fractionally. These various indicators are tested against the hypothesis that the classification of journals into 11 broad fields by PatentBoard/NSF (National Science Foundation) provides statistically significant between‐field effects. Using fractional counting the between‐field variance is reduced by 91.7% in the case of IF5, and by 79.2% in the case of IF2. However, the differences in citation counts are not significantly affected by fractional counting. These results accord with previous studies, but the longer citation window of a fractionally counted IF5 can lead to significant improvement in the normalization across fields.

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  • Loet Leydesdorff & Ping Zhou & Lutz Bornmann, 2013. "How can journal impact factors be normalized across fields of science? An assessment in terms of percentile ranks and fractional counts," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(1), pages 96-107, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:64:y:2013:i:1:p:96-107
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.22765
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    2. Bornmann, Lutz & Haunschild, Robin, 2016. "Normalization of Mendeley reader impact on the reader- and paper-side: A comparison of the mean discipline normalized reader score (MDNRS) with the mean normalized reader score (MNRS) and bare reader ," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 776-788.
    3. Xiaojing Cai & Xiaozan Lyu & Ping Zhou, 2023. "The relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation impact—a novel perspective on citation accumulation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Tove Faber Frandsen & Jeppe Nicolaisen, 2017. "Rejoinder: Noble prize effects in citation networks," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(12), pages 2844-2845, December.
    5. Bornmann, Lutz & Haunschild, Robin, 2016. "Citation score normalized by cited references (CSNCR): The introduction of a new citation impact indicator," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 875-887.
    6. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    7. M. Ryan Haley & M. Kevin McGee, 2023. "A flexible functional method for jointly valuing journal visibility and author citation count," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(6), pages 3337-3346, June.
    8. Bouyssou, Denis & Marchant, Thierry, 2016. "Ranking authors using fractional counting of citations: An axiomatic approach," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 183-199.
    9. Waltman, Ludo & van Eck, Nees Jan, 2013. "A systematic empirical comparison of different approaches for normalizing citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 833-849.
    10. Haley, M. Ryan & McGee, M. Kevin, 2020. "Jointly valuing journal visibility and author citation count: An axiomatic approach," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1).
    11. João Mateus Freitas Veneroso & Marlon Dias & Alberto Ueda & Sabir Ribas & Berthier Ribeiro-Neto & Nivio Ziviani & Edmundo Souza e Silva, 2019. "P-score: a reputation bibliographic index that complements citation counts," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1269-1291, December.

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