The ISI Web of Knowledge recently published the 2007 Journal Citation Reports. Following a similar study I performed last year, here is my analysis of the current status and trends for the impact factor in computer science journals.
Let me start with an overview of the method I followed. I performed my analysis on the 382 journals appearing under the computer science subject categories: artificial intelligence; cybernetics; hardware & architecture; information systems; interdisciplinary applications; software engineering; theory & methods. Note that journals may appear in many categories. In particular, there are many overlaps between the above categories and "electrical and electronic engineering" and "operations research and management science".
Don't take this report too seriously. The impact factor is notoriously prone to misuse; let's not make the situation worse. Also note that in computer science there are tens of prestigious conferences whose impact factor is higher than that of most journals.
Rank | Name | ISSN | IF |
---|---|---|---|
1 | MIS QUART | 0276-7783 | 5.826 |
2 | ACM COMPUT SURV | 0360-0300 | 5.250 |
3 | BIOINFORMATICS | 1367-4803 | 5.039 |
4 | VLDB J | 1066-8888 | 3.818 |
5 | COGNITIVE BRAIN RES | 0926-6410 | 3.769 |
6 | NEUROINFORMATICS | 1539-2791 | 3.750 |
7 | IEEE T PATTERN ANAL | 0162-8828 | 3.579 |
8 | MED IMAGE ANAL | 1361-8415 | 3.505 |
9 | ACM T GRAPHIC | 0730-0301 | 3.413 |
10 | J WEB SEMANT | 1570-8268 | 3.410 |
CLUSTER COMPUT
COGN SYST RES
COMPUT CONCRETE
COMPUT METHOD BIOMEC
CRYPTOLOGIA
DIGIT INVEST
ELECTRON COMMER R A
IEEE COMPUT INTELL M
IEEE T INF FOREN SEC
IET COMPUT DIGIT TEC
IET COMPUT VIS
INT J ARTIF INTELL T
INT J NEURAL SYST
INT J WAVELETS MULTI
INTELL DATA ANAL
J CELL AUTOM
J OPT NETW
J STAT SOFTW
J WEB SEMANT
NEURAL NETW WORLD
Notable in the above list is Elsevier's Journal of Web Semantics which got an ISI impact factor in 2007 and went straight into the computer science top ten list. The addition of Cryptologia deservedly increases the number of cryptological journals with an ISI impact factor to three, thus lessening the pressure from the cryptological community on computer security publication avenues.
COMPUT HUMANITIES
IEE P-COMPUT DIG T
MODEL IDENT CONTROL
Here I lament the dropping of Springer's Computers and the Humanities. On March 21st, 2005 the journal was renamed into Language Resources and Evaluation, but that apparently didn't help stave off its decline. I find this journal's travails a sign of lessening interest on scientific work that doesn't offer marketable returns.
Name | ISSN | Δ IF |
---|---|---|
IBM J RES DEV | 0018-8646 | 1.423 |
REAL-TIME IMAGING | 1077-2014 | 1.284 |
COGNITIVE BRAIN RES | 0926-6410 | 1.201 |
ACM T SOFTW ENG METH | 1049-331X | 1.156 |
INFORM SCIENCES | 0020-0255 | 1.144 |
ACM COMPUT SURV | 0360-0300 | 1.12 |
MIS QUART | 0276-7783 | 1.095 |
INT J INNOV COMPUT I | 1349-4198 | 0.813 |
IEEE MICRO | 0272-1732 | 0.743 |
ARTIF INTELL | 0004-3702 | 0.737 |
The IF increase of IEEE Micro shows that this magazine, after some years of floundering at the end of the PC revolution, has again found an appropriate niche bringing itself back on a promising track. The increase of the ACM Computing Surveys IF is a response to a corresponding decrease last year.
Name | ISSN | Δ IF |
---|---|---|
ACM T INFORM SYST | 1046-8188 | -3.09 |
INT J COMPUT VISION | 0920-5691 | -2.704 |
IEEE T EVOLUT COMPUT | 1089-778X | -1.344 |
J CRYPTOL | 0933-2790 | -1.009 |
IEEE INTELL SYST | 1541-1672 | -0.975 |
INFORM RETRIEVAL | 1386-4564 | -0.974 |
MACH LEARN | 0885-6125 | -0.912 |
J AM MED INFORM ASSN | 1067-5027 | -0.885 |
IEEE T MOBILE COMPUT | 1536-1233 | -0.834 |
IEEE T PATTERN ANAL | 0162-8828 | -0.727 |
Here I can't help but note the appearance of four journals that publish broadly related research: IEEE Intelligent Systems, Machine Learning, IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis, and Information Retrieval. A sign of trouble ahead?
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