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A new journal power-weakness ratio to measure journal impact

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Abstract

Journal impact indicators are useful measures to determine the relative importance of journals within a given discipline. By recasting the journal cross-citation matrix as a directed network, journals can be represented by nodes and journal-journal citations correspond to weighted directed links between nodes. In this form, it is possible to use graph-theoretic approaches to determine a ranking of nodes based on the structure of the links they are embedded in. Based on the Power-Weakness paradigm originally introduced by Ramanajucharyulu for ranking players in a tournament, we show how this idea can be modified under a bibliometric setting to find journals that contribute proportionate inbound and outbound citation flows within a homogeneous citation network to the extent that the power to influence and the weakness to be influenced by other journals are in near equal measure. We study two journal systems based on the Library and Information Sciences field based on a citation window in 2012 and another in 2018.

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Notes

  1. For a directed graph with N nodes the maximum number of links is \(N(N-1)\). Hence, the network density for a directed graph with M links is \(D = M/[N(N-1)] \in [0,1]\). Sparse networks have a value of D closer to zero while dense networks will have D tending to 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mathematical Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Ephrance Abu Ujum & Kuru Ratnavelu

  2. Asia Europe Institute, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Sameer Kumar

  3. Institute of Computer Science Digital Innovation, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur Campus No. 1, Jalan Puncak Menara Gading, UCSI Heights, 56000, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Kuru Ratnavelu

  4. A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 695016, India

    Gangan Prathap

Authors
  1. Ephrance Abu Ujum
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  2. Sameer Kumar
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  3. Kuru Ratnavelu
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  4. Gangan Prathap
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Correspondence to Kuru Ratnavelu.

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Ujum, E.A., Kumar, S., Ratnavelu, K. et al. A new journal power-weakness ratio to measure journal impact. Scientometrics 126, 9051–9068 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04132-5

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