Almost three years ago I presented results of an analysis of
Polish Polar Research (PPR) as a medium of international sci−
entific communication in 1996–2002 (Racki 2002). The study
based on citation statistics that reveal importance and useful−
ness of published results and ideas in the global research com−
munity. Of course, this impact measure needs careful attention
and remains a subject of some controversy (e.g. Adams 2002),
and should be used with informed peer review for a truly appro−
priate evaluation of scientific information sources. The most
reliable system of the cited reference searching includes data−
bases of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Phila−
delphia. The ISI® Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI Ex)
provides access to references found in approximately 5,900 of
the world’s leading scholarly science and technical journals
covering more than 150 subject categories. The diagnostic sig−
nificance for international journal quality has got the ISIs impact factor (IF), a number which
gives a measure of the rate with which the “average article” in a journal has been cited in a par−
ticular year
