Ten Things We Should Know About Time Series

Time series data affect many aspects of our lives. This paper highlights ten things we should all know about time series, namely: a good working knowledge of econometrics and statistics, an awareness of measurement errors, testing for zero frequency, seasonal and periodic unit roots, analysing fractionally integrated and long memory processes, estimating VARFIMA models, using and interpreting cointegrating models carefully, choosing sensibly among univariate conditional, stochastic and realized volatility models, not confusing thresholds, asymmetry and leverage, not underestimating the complexity of multivariate volatility models, and thinking carefully about forecasting models and expertise.Unit roots; fractional integration; long memory; VARFIMA; cointegration; volatility; thresholds; asymmetry; leverage; forecasting models and expertise

Great Expectatrics: Great Papers, Great Journals, Great Econometrics

The paper discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). Some analysis and comparisons are also made with data from the SciVerse Scopus database. The various RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 2YIF without journal self citations (2YIF*), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), Self-citation Threshold Approval Rating (STAR), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). The RAM are analysed for 10 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences of the alternative RAM, finds that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals, while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM, and shows that the harmonic mean of 13 RAM provides more robust journal rankings than relying solely on 2YIF.Research assessment measures, impact factors, Immediacy, Eigenfactor, Article influence, Cited article influence, h-index, C3PO, Zinfluence, PI-BETA, IFI, STAR.

How are Journal Impact, Prestige and Article Influence Related? An Application to Neuroscience.

The paper analyses the leading journals in Neurosciences using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAM), highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM, shows that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics of highly cited journals, and shows that some other RAM have low correlations with each other, and hence add significant informational value. Alternative RAM are discussed for the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily include the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence score, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), 2-year and historical Self-citation Threshold Approval Ratings (STAR), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), and Cited Article Influence (CAI). The RAM are analysed for 26 highly cited journals in the ISI category of Neurosciences. The paper finds that the Eigenfactor score and PI-BETA are not highly correlated with the other RAM scores, so that they convey additional information regarding journal rankings, that Article Influence is highly correlated with some existing RAM, so that it has little informative incremental value, and that CAI has additional informational value to that of Article Influence. Harmonic mean rankings of the 13 RAM criteria for the 26 highly cited journals are also presented. Emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal to the exclusion of other informative RAM criteria is shown to lead to a distorted evaluation of journal performance and influence, especially given the informative value of several other RAM.Impact factor, Prestige, Immediacy, Eigenfactor, Article Influence, h-index, C3PO, Zinfluence, PI-BETA, STAR, IFI, Cited Article influence.

What Makes a Great Journal Great in Economics? The Singer Not the Song

The paper is concerned with analysing what makes a great journal great in economics, based on quantifiable measures. Alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM) are discussed, with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The various ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), and two new RAM measure, the Self-citation Threshold Approval Rating (STAR) score and the Impact Factor Inflation (IFI) score. The ISI RAM data are analysed for the most highly cited journals in the ISI categories of Economics, Management, Business, and Business - Finance. The journals are chosen on the basis of 2YIF (including self citations by both author and journal). The application to these four ISI categories could be used as a template for other ISI categories in both the Social Sciences and the Sciences, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of ISI disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in the most highly cited Economics journals, the paper also compares the most highly cited journals in Management, Business, and Business - Finance, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, finds that several ISI RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the most highly cited Economics, Management, Business and Business - Finance journals, determines that the Immediacy and PI-BETA scores are not highly correlated with the other ISI RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding ISI RAM criteria. Harmonic mean rankings of the 12 RAM criteria for the most highly cited journals in the four categories are also presented. It was shown that emphasizing THE impact factor, specifically the 2-year impact factor, of a journal to the exclusion of other useful and illuminating RAM criteria, can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal performance and influence on the profession.Research assessment measures; impact factors; Immediacy; Eigenfactor; Article Influence; h-index; C3PO; Zinfluence; PI-BETA; STAR; IFI

How does Zinfluence Affect Article Influence?

The paper analyses the leading journals in Neuroscience using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAM). Alternative RAM criteria are discussed for the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily include the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence score, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), and three new RAM, namely Self-citation Threshold Approval Rating (STAR), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), and Cited Article Influence (CAI). The RAM criteria are analysed for 26 highly cited journals in the ISI category of Neurosciences. The paper highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, shows that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics of highly cited journals, and finds that the Eigenfactor score and PI-BETA are not highly correlated with the other RAM scores, and hence convey additional information regarding journal rankings. Harmonic mean rankings are also presented of the 13 RAM criteria for the 26 highly cited journals. It is shown that emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal to the exclusion of other informative RAM criteria can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal performance and influence.Impact factors; Immediacy; Eigenfactor; Article Influence; h-index, C3PO; Zinfluence; PI-BETA; STAR, IFI; Cited Article influence

Great Expectatrics: Great Papers, Great Journals, Great Econometrics

The paper discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The various ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). The ISI RAM data are analysed for 8 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, finds that several ISI RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other ISI RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding ISI RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM.Research assessment measures; impact factors; Immediacy; Eigenfactor score; Article influence; h-index; C3PO; Zinfluence; PI-BETA

Journal Impact Factor Versus Eigenfactor and Article Influence

This paper examines the practical usefulness of two new journal performance metrics, namely the Eigenfactor score, which is said to measure “importance”, and Article Influence score, which is said to measure “prestige”, using the most recent ISI data for 2009 for the 200 most highly cited journals in each of the Sciences and Social Sciences, and compares them with two existing ISI metrics, namely Total Citations and the 5-year Impact Factor (5YIF) of a journal. It is shown that the Sciences and Social Sciences are different in terms of the strength of the relationship of journal performance metrics, although the actual relationships are very similar. Moreover, the importance and prestige journal performance metrics are shown to be closely related to the two existing ISI metrics, and hence add little in practical usefulness to what is already known. These empirical results are compared with existing results in the literature.Journal performance metrics; Research assessment measures; Total citations; 5-year impact factor (5YIF); Eigenfactor; Article influence; Importance; Prestige