The impact factor for Acta Palaeontologica Polonica was calculated on the basis of a citation
database provided by the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia. It appears
that APP is improving its position within the group of leading international palaeontological
periodicals, with IF increasing from 0.167 in 1992 to 0.576 in 1997. APP is the only Earth
Sciences representative among 35 Polish journals included in the IS1 citation database

Baliński, Andrzej

Racki, Grzegorz

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

English

Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Śląskiego RE-BUŚ

             Title: The impact factor of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica  Author: Grzegorz Racki, Andrzej Baliński  Citation style: Racki Grzegorz, Baliński Andrzej. (1999). The impact factor of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. "Acta Palaeontologica Polonica" (1999, no. 4, s. 467-472).  Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 467472, Warszawa 1999 The impact factor of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica GRZEGORZ RACKI and ANDRZEJ BALII~~KI  The impact factor for Acta Palaeontologka Polonica was calculated on the basis of a citation database provided by the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia. It appears that APP is improving its position within the group of leading international palaeontological periodicals, with IF increasing from 0.167 in 1992 to 0.576 in 1997. APP is the only Earth Sciences representative among 35 Polish journals included in the IS1 citation database. The most complete and prestigious system of indexation of international science and technology journals is that provided by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia. About 5600 titles are indexed there (see the IS1 Homepage http://www.isinet.com). Acta Palaeontolo- gica Polonica (APP) was first included in the coverage by the Science Citation Index Expanded as late as 1996, and is thus relatively new to the system. Obviously, we can hardly compete with journals which are well established in the scientific market, the more so since palaeontology is one of the smallest among 160 fields covered by ISI. Nevertheless, after three years of being scored by ISI, it is an appropriate time to determine our starting point for future development. In principle, to find the position of a source journal in the IS1 ranking it is enough to consult the annually pub- lished Journal Citation Reports - 1997 Science Edition (JCR), where values of impact factor and other bibliometric figures are presented for most of the indexed journals. The JCR reports the av- erage number of citations that recently published papers in a given journal receive in a current year, revealing relative importance among periodicals, particularly those in the same or similar disciplines. Unfortunately, such data are not presented for APP, because 'two years of article counts are required; the journal will be listed in the 1998 JCR' (J. Robertson personal communica- tion). For the same reason, the indices are also missing for the thematically related Newsletter on Stratigraphy, Paleontologic'eskij iurnal, Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, and Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigra$a, all introduced in 1996-1997 as well. Our need to know the impact factor forAPP is not simply a matter of curiosity. It is the current policy of the grant-bestowing State Committee for Scientific Research to favour those Polish journals which are in the IS1 coverage (on the 'Philadelphia list'). More importantly, it is assumed that the journal impact factor sufficiently evaluates published papers (and thus the quality of re- search), which influences the subsidization of scientific institutions in Poland. The employment of journal impact factors as surrogates of actual citation counts for particular authors and articles has been criticised (e.g., Seglen 1997), but this index may be viewed as an approximation of suc- cess probability for recently published papers. In fact, IS1 does not recommend dependance ex- clusive on citation data in journal evaluations. The IS1 bibliometric indices are not intended to substitute totally for informed peer reviews. As APP is still absent from the authorised ranking, we have determined its conventional two-year impact factor using the standard IS1 formula (Gatfield 1990; Hojortgaard Christensen et al. 1997): where: IF1997 - impact factor for 1997; 468 Discussion c95, c96 - number of citations received in 1997, taken from Science Citation Index Expanded, to source items published in 1995 and 1996, respectively; a95, a96 - number of original research (including notes) and review articles published by the journal in 1995 and 1996, respectively. It should be emphasized that the citation counts in the JCR do not distinguish between cita- tions of letters, book reviews, or research papers, but recent article numbers in the JCR are limited to original research and review articles only. The source items not defined by IS1 as citable docu- ments (editorials, book reviews, letters, corrections, meeting abstracts, etc.) are also sporadically cited and do contribute to the citation counts of a periodical (see Hojortgaard Christensen et al. 1997; Seglen 1997). Consequently, the actual scores for APP are: Number of citations - IF1997 = - = 0.576 Number of articles 17+ 16 Nineteen citations in 1997 to APP refer to twelve original papers and one paper review of the total of 47 source items. Just two of these (by Gambaryan & Kielan-Jaworowska on Cretaceous multituberculate mammals and by Kozlowska-Dawidziuk on retiolitid graptolites) have received 3 citations each (see Table 1). Based on these calculations the position of APP can be established with respect to the other 24 palaeontological journals impact-rated in JCR (Table 2). The Paleon- tology category, being a subfield of Geoscience in the IS1 scheme, includes 'journals that focus on the study of life and physical conditions, such as climate and geography, of past geological peri- ods as recorded by fossil remains'. It appears that APP is improving its position within the group of original research periodicals, with IF increasing from 0.167 in 1992 to 0.370 in 1995 (see Racki 1997), and to 0.576 in 1997. APP was established in 1956 and papers from all its (42) volumes were most frequently cited in 1997 in Palaeontology (34 times), Journal of Paleontology (26) and Cretaceous Research (10). In addition, if we only count citations for APP from otherjournals, this External Cited IF 1997 is also high (0.394); this property implies a low self-citation level (both for the journal itself and authors) and the relatively significant knowledge export to world science (Hojortgaard Christensen et al. 1997), which is a diagnostic feature of international impact (Wormell 1998). Undoubtedly, APP is not a national-based ('domestic-oriented') journal since of 33 papers published in 1995-1996, only 14 were written exclusively by Polish authors, and the link between author internalization and citation internalization is well established in this case (see also Wormell 1998; Zitt & Bassecoulard 1998). The combination of good quality journal characters with a low price, con- tribute to the rising value ofAPP for subscribers (see discussion in Ribbe 1990). Nevertheless, it is hard to predict future developments in the ranking of our journal even if the rise of its IF also con- tinued in 1998 (estimated by us at 0.649, i.e., 24 citations in 1998 of 37 articles from 1996-1997, including one brief report; see Table 3). Generally, periodicals keep a similar position year after year (Garfield 1990), even if an over- all decrease of impact factors for the palaeontological journals has been detectable recently (com- pare the 1995 list in Rach 1997). The main exceptions are Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology and Journal of Foraminifera1 Research. The interdisciplinary Paleoceanography and Paleobiology permanently occupy the top locations in the list, while the Elsevier journals (Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, and Marine Micropaleontology), Jour- nal of Quaternary Science, GFF (first time in JCR), and Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology form a palaeontological core. It is necessary to remember that palaeontology is among the low-impact IS1 categories, and does not generate as many papers (and therefore cited references), as e.g., genetics, biochemistry or molecular biology; this lh ta t ion in fact concerns all Earth sciences (Blair 1992). So, coverage of fields varies widely and no palaeontological journal can be compared with, for example, An- nual Review of Biochemistry with its impact factor for 1997 of 40.782, or Cell with 37.796. In ad- ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA (44) (4) 469 dition, the thematic ranges of many periodicals in modern palaeontology, as broadly outlined by ISI, are in fact transitional to other fields of Earth sciences (mostly divided between Geosciences and Life Sciences; see also Klimley 1993). Clearly, relatively traditional palaeontological jour- nals, dealing primarily with systematics and fossils, are not especially prosperous, as exemplified by the decreasing impacts of Palaeontology and Micropaleontology. On the other hand, the cita- tion response to 'standard' palaeontological papers seems to be generally more delayed than in other fields of science. This is well exemplified by differences between palaeontological periodi- cals with wider and narrower scopes. For the relatively general Paleoceanography, Paleobiology, and Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology in 1997 citations of papers published in 1988-1997 contributed 61.28,54.41, and 49.47 percent, respectively. This was distinctly more than in the case of Micropaleontology (28.67), Alcheringa (29.22), and Palaeontology (29.43). Such differences must strongly influence the short-term IF index. APP is the only Earth sciences representative among 35 Polish journals included in the IS1 cita- tion database. Most others represent biological and chemical sciences. In its impact factor value APP is in a high (8th) position among 22 Polish IS1 periodicals classified in JCR 1997. With the ex- ception of the higher-rated Acta Astronomica (IF = 1.300) and Journal of Physiology and Pharma- cology (0.962), none of these journals has an IF exceeding 0.6 (e.g., Chemia Analityczna - 0.564, Acta Theriologica - 0.549, Acta Protozoologica - 0.500, Polish Journal of Chemistry - 0.468, Acta Physiologiae Plantarum - 0.444, Folia Biologica - 0.358, Acta Physica Polonica A - 0.31 1, Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae - 0.034), Acta Biologica Cracoviensia has nil indices. When com- pared with the mean IF within a field, two mathematical journals, Acta Arithmetica and Studia Mathematica, belong to the highest prestige serials in world science in 1997. Recently, the IS1 announced the 1998 IF listing (JCR - 1998 Science Edition) and the score computed for APP was 0.270 only. According to the ISI, only 10 citations were found in 1998. These figures seem to be significantly underestimated. As demonstrated in Table 3, there are at least 24 citations of APP publications in 1998 (IF = 0.649). Acknowledgements We would like to thank Janet Robertson, the Editor of JCR, for help in understanding the IS1 procedure for IF calculation and for constructive remarks. E. Garfield and J. Dzik kindly pro- vided stimulus for improvement of the note. References Blair, N.L. 1992. Use of a citation index to quantify the influence of earth science researchers on the work of others. In: L.S. Zipp (ed.), Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Meeting of the Geoscience Information. - Proceedings - Geoscience Information Society 23,65-68. Garfield, E. 1990. How IS1 selectjournals for coverage: quantitative and qualitative considerations. - Cur- rent Contents 22,5-13. Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia. Hjortgaard Christensen, F., Ingwersen, P., & Wormell, I. 1997. Online determination of the journal impact factor and its international properties. - Scientometrics 40,528-540. Klirnley, S. 1993. Limitations of Science Citation Index data in evaluating journals and scientists in geol- ogy. In: C. Wick (ed.), Geoscience Information Society, Twenty-eighth Meeting. - Proceedings - Geoscience Information Society 24,23-3 1. Racki, G. 1997. Palaeontology in Science Citation Index 1995. - Lethaia 30, 17-18. Ribbe, P.H. 1990. The value of serials; relevance to producers and consumers of scientific journals. In: M. Dvorzak (ed.), Geological Societies and Information Transfer in the Electronic Age. -Proceedings - Geoscience Information Society 21,41-53. Seglen, P.O. 1997. Citations and journal impact factors: questionable indicators of research quality. -Al- lergy 52, i050-1056. Wormell, I. 1998. Infometric analysis of the international impact of scientific journals: how 'international' are international journals? - Journal of Documentation 54,584-605. 470 Discussion Zitt, M. & Bassecoulard, E. 1998. Internalization of scientific journals: a measurement based on publication and citation scope. - Scientometrics 41,255-271. Grzegorz Racki [racki@ us.edu.pl], Katedra Paleontologii i Stratygrafii, ~niwerqte t  Slqki, ul. Bedzirisku 60, PL-41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland. Andrzej Baliriski [balinski@ twarda.pan.pl], Znstytut Paleobiologii PAN, ul. Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warszawa, Poland. Table 1. List of citations of papers from Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 1996-1 997, to document the esti- mation of the impact factor 1997 (IF = 0.576) Cited paper Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 1995 (v. 40) -1996 (v. 41) Gambaryan, P.P. & Kielan-~aworowska" Z. 40,45-108 Sigogneau-Russell D. & Hahn, R. 40, 245-260 Collins J.S.H. et al. 40, 165-210 Chen, J.Y. et al. 40,213-244 Morycowa, E. & Roniewicz, E. 40,361-385 Stolarski, J. 41, 339-367 Zhen , Y.Y. 41,59-88 Hurum, J.H. et al. 41,253-275, Kaimierczak, J. et al. 41,3 19-338 Machalski, M. 41,369-383 Filipiak, P. & Krawczydski W. 41,413-425 Dzik, J. 41,58 Citing paper in 1997 Cifelli RL, Kirkland JI, Weil A, et al., P NATL ACAD SCI USA 94: (21) 11163-1 1167, OCT 14,1997 Novacek MJ, CURR BIOL 7: (8) R489-R491, AUG 1,1997 Kielan-Jaworowska Z, Hurum JH, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 42: (2) 201-242, JUN 1997 Butler PM, J VERTEBR PALEONTOL 17: (2) 435-439, JUN 1997 Sigogneau-Russell D, Godefroit P, CR ACAD SCI I1 A 324: (2) 135-140, JAN 1997 Vega FJ, Feldmann RM, Ocampo AC, et al., J PALEONTOL 7 1 : (4) 615-620, JUL 1997 Dzik J, Zhao YL, Zhu MY, PALAEONTOLOGY 40: 385-396, Part 2, MAY 1997 Kozlowska-Dawidziuk A, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 42 (3), 391412, SEPT 1997 Loydell DK, Storch P, Bates DEB, PALAEONTOLOGY 40: 747-762, Part 3, AUG 1997 Zhang YD, Lenz AC,CAN J EARTH SCI 34: (9) 1220-1238, SEP 1997 Pandey DK, Lathuilibre B, J PALEONTOL 71: (4) 564-577, JUL 1997 Fedorowski J, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 42: (4), 446456, DEC 1997 Zhen YY, West RR, ALCHERINGA 21 : (3-4) 271-280, 1997 Kielan-Jaworowska Z, Hurum JH, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 42: (2) 201-242, JUN 1997 I Briggs DEG, Wilby PR, Perez-Moreno BP, et al., J GEOL SOC LONDON 154: 587-588, Part 4, JUL 1997 I Christensen WK, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 42: (4) 457-495, DEC 1997 Anderson LI et al., GEOL J 32, 197-210, 1997 Keighley DG, Pickerill RK, ATLANTIC GEOL 33: (3) 181-215, NOV 1997 Pickerill RK, Keighley DG, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 42: (1) 171-174, MAR 1997 1) Long author's names have to be searched in truncated andlor single-word form (e.g., KIELANJAW* for KIELAN-JAWOROWSKA), because they are shortened in IS1 databases in a different manner. ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA (44) (4) Table 2. Palaeontology journals ranked by impact factors (after Journal Citation Reports - 1997 Science Edition) Rank Journal title Impact factor (IF) 1997 Source items in 1997 1 2 3 IF 1997 - IF 1995 ( 1  15 1 ~ e v i e w  qfPalaeobotany and Palynology 1 0.623 1 -0.077 1 953 (114) 1 79 Total citations in 1997 (citations in 1997 to articles published in 1995-1996) Paleoceanography Paleobiology Journal o f  Quaternary Science 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 I 13 14 3.160 1.959 1.459 Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology Marine Micropaleontology GFF* Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Palaios Facies* Journal of Foraminifera1 Research Vegetation History and Archaeobotany* Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh - Earth Sciences GLographie Physique et Quaternaire Lethaia - - / 17 Acta Palaeonfologica Polonica* * I I I I 20 1 Cretaceous Research ( 0.444 1 +0.029 1 280 (36) 1 43 18 19 -0.560 -0.412 -0.608 1.319 1.184 1.115 1.036 1.012 1.000 0.860 0.800 0.780 0.667 0.632 20 2061 (376) 1098 (143) 404 (89) >179*** (19) 0.576 Journal of Paleontology Micropaleontology * First time introduced to JCR. +0.364 -0.595 no data no data -0.308 no data +0.277 no data +0.158 +0.140 -0.161 +0.175 21 22 23 24 25 ** Non-impact rated in JCR - IF is assessed by authors after detailed article-by-article analysis for APP 1995-1996, according to the first author name. J. Robertson (personal communication) informed us that the JCR production program is based on a citation search for the journal title; this method resulted in only 4 recovered citations (IF = 0.121) when she used the 'standard abbreviation' ACTA PALAEONTOL POL, and 15 citations for the truncated version ACTA PALAEONTOL* (IF = 0.455); 4 extra citations identified by us refer to still further codes of APP recorded in the IS1 database, such as ACTA PAL POLONICA. So this approach is limited by 'primary'errors introduced to references by authors in the indexed paper and by 'secondary' errors made by the IS1 indexers (see examples in Blair 1992), it is also affected by differences in the way journals are coded. ***Total citations extracted from periodicals from Palaeontology and Geology fields only. 0.479 0.449 0.441 0.373 0.350 - - Alcheringa Proceedings of the Geologists' Association Geobios 2518 (331) 941 (103) 87 (58) 541 (142) 542 (86) 216 (51) 488 (49) 67 (40) 324 (46) 277 (36) 558 (48) Journal of Micropalaeontology* StratigraJia i Geologicheskaya Korelatsya - Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation* 158 71 4 1 70 43 42 24 13 8 3 1 3 8 +0.087 -0.295 -0.021 no data +0.136 0.289 0.061 1636 (114) 5 8 1 (22) 226 (15) 355 (19) 396 (36) 103 26 21 27 5 8 no data no data 62 (1 1) 22 (7) 25 63 472 Discussion Table 3. List of citations of papers from Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 1996-1 997, as a documentation for estimation of the impact factor 1998 (IF = 0.649) Cited paper Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 1996 (v. 41) - 1997 (v. 42) Citing paper in 1998 Yong-yi Zhen 41,59-88 Pedder AEH, J PALEONTOL 72: (6) 967-991 NOV 1998 Szaniawski, H. & Imajima, M. 41,111-125 Hints 0 ,  ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (3) 471-516 SEP 1998 Eriksson M, Bergman CF, J PALEONTOL 72: (3) 477-485 MAY 1998 Eriksson M, GFF 120: 21-25 Part 1 MAR 1998 Hoare, R.D. et al. 41,127-145 Rudkh DM, CAN J EARTH SCI 35: (7) 827-83 1 JUL 1998 Hurum, J.H. et al. 41,253-275 Hurum JH, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (1) 21-52 MAR 1998 Kaimierczak, J. et al. 41,319-338 Tribovillard NP, TERRA NOVA 10: (3) 126-130 JUN 1998 Feinstein N, Cairns SD, NAUTILUS 112: (3) 73-83 OCT 15 1998 Ezaki Y, PALEOBIOLOGY 24: (2) 227-234 SPR 1998 Trammer, J. & Kaim, A. 42,l-12 Alroy J, SCIENCE 280: (5364) 73 1-734 MAY 1 1998 Gambaryan, P.P. & Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 42, 13-44 Hurum JH, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (1) 21-52 MAR 1998 Kielan-Jaworowska Z, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (1) 131-134 MAR 1998 Dzik, J. 42,57-170 Zhuravlev AV, P GEOLOGIST ASSOC 109: 161-168 Part 3 1998 Pickerill, R.K. & Keighley, D.G. 42,17 1-174 Keighley DG, Pickerill RK, ATLANTIC GEOL 34: (2) 83-1 12 JUL 1998 Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. & Hurum, J.H. 42,201-242 Hurum JH, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (1) 21-52 MAR 1998 Kielan-Jaworowska Z, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (1) 131-134 MAR 1998 Averianov, A.O. 42,243-256 Rougier GW, Wible JR, Novacek MJ, NATURE 396: (6710) 459463 DEC 3 1998 Mutvei, H. 42,375-390 Mutvei H, GFF 120: 375-378 Parth 4 DEC 1998 Racki G, Balidski A, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (2) 273-304 JUN 1998 Godefioid J, Helsen S, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (2) 241-272 JlTN 1998 Rzhonsnitskaya MA, Markovskii BP, Yudina YA, et al., ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (2) 305-344 JUN 1998 Racki G, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43: (2) 395411 JUN 1998 Trofimov, B.A. 42,496 Kielan-Jaworowska Z, Dashzeveg D, ACTA PALAEONTOL POL 43 : (3) 4 1 3 4 3  8 SEP 1998 Sigogneau-Russell D, Ensom F, CRETACEOUS RES 19: (3-4) 445470 JUN-AUG 1998 

The impact factor of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

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The impact factor of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

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