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Measuring scientific performance of ISI indexed journals in economics: the impact of synchronous and diachronous impact factors

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Abstract

Different diachronous citing units were used to determine if there are differences between rankings of journals measured by synchronous impact factors of first- and late-comer journals. A 5 year impact factor was chosen, with citation lags identified as a complementary method for first comers and alternative measurement for late comers. Selected diachronous indices were considered as alternatives for evaluating the short and long term performance of late comers without citation lags. The results show that the most significant index that promotes scientific fairness and recognition is the citation concentration index. As older journals gathered higher citations, this index enables late-comers to catch up with the citations. Hence, the diachronous impact factor is useful in providing a fairer assessment of the impact of the late-comer journals and could be used as a baseline for ranking ISI journals.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge Dr. Ram Gopal Raj and Mr. Ephrance Abu Ujum for their comments as well as UM High Impact Research Grant (HIR) C/625/1/HIR/MOHE/SC/13 for supporting this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Vignes Gopal Krishna

  2. Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Rajah Rasiah

  3. Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Kuru Ratnavelu

Authors
  1. Vignes Gopal Krishna
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  2. Rajah Rasiah
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  3. Kuru Ratnavelu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kuru Ratnavelu.

Appendix

Appendix

See Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

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Normal Q–Q plot of 2 year impact factor for first comer journals

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Fig. 4
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Normal Q–Q plot of 5 year impact factor for first comer journals

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Fig. 5
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Normal Q–Q plot of diachronous impact factor based on non-self citations for first comer journals

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Fig. 6
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Normal Q–Q plot of diachronous impact factor based on citation concentration index for first comer journals

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Fig. 7
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Normal Q–Q plot of diachronous impact factor based on journal energy index for first comer journals

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Fig. 8
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Normal Q–Q plot of 2 year impact factor for late comer journals

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Fig. 9
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Normal Q–Q plot of 5 year impact factor for late comer journals

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Fig. 10
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Normal Q–Q plot of diachronous impact factor based on non-self citations for late comer journals

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Fig. 11
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Normal Q–Q plot of diachronous impact factor based on citation concentration index for late comer journals

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Fig. 12
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Normal Q–Q plot of diachronous impact factor based on journal energy index for late comer journals

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Krishna, V.G., Rasiah, R. & Ratnavelu, K. Measuring scientific performance of ISI indexed journals in economics: the impact of synchronous and diachronous impact factors. Qual Quant 50, 2185–2215 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0258-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0258-1

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