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Behind citing-side normalization of citations: some properties of the journal impact factor

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  • M. Zitt

    (INRA
    Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST))

Abstract

A new family of citation normalization methods appeared recently, in addition to the classical methods of “cited-side” normalization and the iterative measures of intellectual influence in the wake of Pinski and Narin influence weights. These methods have a quite global scope in citation analysis but were first applied to the journal impact, in the experimental Audience Factor (AF) and the Scopus Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP). Analyzing some properties of the Garfield’s Journal Impact Factor, this note highlights the rationale of citing-side (or source-level, fractional citation, ex ante) normalization.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Zitt, 2011. "Behind citing-side normalization of citations: some properties of the journal impact factor," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(1), pages 329-344, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:89:y:2011:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-011-0441-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-011-0441-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Loet Leydesdorff & Tobias Opthof, 2010. "Scopus's source normalized impact per paper (SNIP) versus a journal impact factor based on fractional counting of citations," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(11), pages 2365-2369, November.
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    4. Suzy Ramanana-Rahary & Michel Zitt & Ronald Rousseau, 2009. "Aggregation properties of relative impact and other classical indicators: Convexity issues and the Yule-Simpson paradox," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(2), pages 311-327, May.
    5. Zitt, Michel, 2010. "Citing-side normalization of journal impact: A robust variant of the Audience Factor," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 392-406.
    6. Loet Leydesdorff & Jung C. Shin, 2011. "How to evaluate universities in terms of their relative citation impacts: Fractional counting of citations and the normalization of differences among disciplines," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(6), pages 1146-1155, June.
    7. Michel Zitt & Henry Small, 2008. "Modifying the journal impact factor by fractional citation weighting: The audience factor," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(11), pages 1856-1860, September.
    8. Nicolaisen, Jeppe & Frandsen, Tove Faber, 2008. "The Reference Return Ratio," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 128-135.
    9. Michel Zitt & Suzy Ramanana-Rahary & Elise Bassecoulard, 2003. "Correcting glasses help fair comparisons in international science landscape: Country indicators as a function of ISI database delineation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(2), pages 259-282, February.
    10. Poovanalingam Murugesan & Michael J. Moravcsik, 1978. "Variation of the nature of citation measures with journals and scientific specialties," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 29(3), pages 141-147, May.
    11. Michel Zitt & Suzy Ramanana-Rahary & Elise Bassecoulard, 2005. "Relativity of citation performance and excellence measures: From cross-field to cross-scale effects of field-normalisation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(2), pages 373-401, April.
    12. Moed, Henk F., 2010. "Measuring contextual citation impact of scientific journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 265-277.
    13. Peter Vinkler, 2004. "Characterization of the impact of sets of scientific papers: The Garfield (impact) factor," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 55(5), pages 431-435, March.
    14. Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert & Bart Thijs & Koenraad Debackere, 2011. "A priori vs. a posteriori normalisation of citation indicators. The case of journal ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(2), pages 415-424, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. A. Ferrer-Sapena & E. A. Sánchez-Pérez & L. M. González & F. Peset & R. Aleixandre-Benavent, 2015. "Mathematical properties of weighted impact factors based on measures of prestige of the citing journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 2089-2108, December.
    2. Alberto Pepe & Michael J Kurtz, 2012. "A Measure of Total Research Impact Independent of Time and Discipline," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-7, November.
    3. Ludo Waltman & Nees Jan Eck, 2013. "Source normalized indicators of citation impact: an overview of different approaches and an empirical comparison," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(3), pages 699-716, September.
    4. Mingers, John & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2015. "A review of theory and practice in scientometrics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(1), pages 1-19.
    5. John Mingers & Martin Meyer, 2017. "Normalizing Google Scholar data for use in research evaluation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(2), pages 1111-1121, August.
    6. Michel Zitt, 2012. "The journal impact factor: angel, devil, or scapegoat? A comment on J.K. Vanclay’s article 2011," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 485-503, August.
    7. Tahamtan, Iman & Bornmann, Lutz, 2018. "Creativity in science and the link to cited references: Is the creative potential of papers reflected in their cited references?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 906-930.
    8. Campanario, Juan Miguel, 2015. "Providing impact: The distribution of JCR journals according to references they contribute to the 2-year and 5-year journal impact factors," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 398-407.
    9. Henk F. Moed, 2016. "Comprehensive indicator comparisons intelligible to non-experts: the case of two SNIP versions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(1), pages 51-65, January.
    10. Waltman, Ludo & van Eck, Nees Jan & van Leeuwen, Thed N. & Visser, Martijn S., 2013. "Some modifications to the SNIP journal impact indicator," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 272-285.
    11. Rafols, Ismael & Leydesdorff, Loet & O’Hare, Alice & Nightingale, Paul & Stirling, Andy, 2012. "How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1262-1282.
    12. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2014. "Sub-field normalization of the IEEE scientific journals based on their connection with Technical Societies," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 508-533.
    13. Wolfgang Glänzel & Henk F. Moed, 2013. "Opinion paper: thoughts and facts on bibliometric indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 381-394, July.
    14. Mingers, John & Yang, Liying, 2017. "Evaluating journal quality: A review of journal citation indicators and ranking in business and management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(1), pages 323-337.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. J. M. Calabuig & A. Ferrer-Sapena & E. A. Sánchez-Pérez, 2016. "Vector-valued impact measures and generation of specific indexes for research assessment," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1425-1443, September.

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