The Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge has published the 2010 Journal Citation Reports. Following similar studies I performed in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, here is my analysis of the current status and trends for the impact factor of computer science journals.
Let me start with an overview of the method I followed. I performed my analysis on the 449 journals appearing under the Web of Knowledge's 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 has been calculated to be higher than that of most journals.
Rank | Name | ISSN | IF |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ACM COMPUT SURV | 0360-0300 | 7.806 |
2 | MIS QUART | 0276-7783 | 5.041 |
3 | IEEE T PATTERN ANAL | 0162-8828 | 5.027 |
4 | INT J COMPUT VISION | 0920-5691 | 4.930 |
5 | IBM J RES DEV | 0018-8646 | 4.863 |
6 | IEEE T EVOLUT COMPUT | 1089-778X | 4.371 |
7 | SIAM J IMAGING SCI | 1936-4954 | 4.279 |
8 | MED IMAGE ANAL | 1361-8415 | 4.248 |
9 | INT J NEURAL SYST | 0129-0657 | 4.237 |
10 | HUM-COMPUT INTERACT | 0737-0024 | 4.000 |
In the preceding table we see that journals by for-profit publishers, which started appearing en masse in the list last year, are here to stay. This year again we have three journals from this category: Human-Computer Interaction (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), International Journal of Computer Vision (Kluwer), and International Journal of Neural Systems (World Scientific). Also interesting is that the list includes three signal-processing journals: International Journal of Computer Vision, SIAM journal on Imaging Sciences, and Medical Image Analysis. This is probably a spillover effect from the higher impact factor observed in life science journals.
Name | ISSN | IF |
---|---|---|
ACM T ALGORITHMS | 1549-6325 | 0.932 |
BIOMED ENG-APP BAS C | 1016-2372 | 0.188 |
COMPUT MATH ORGAN TH | 1381-298X | 0.000 |
COMPUT SCI INF SYST | 1820-0214 | 0.324 |
COMPUT SPEECH LANG | 0885-2308 | 1.353 |
COMPUT SUPP COOP W J | 0925-9724 | 0.487 |
EARTH SCI INFORM | 1865-0473 | 0.657 |
INFORM VISUAL | 1473-8716 | 1.341 |
INT ARAB J INF TECHN | 1683-3198 | 0.065 |
INT J NETW MANAG | 1055-7148 | 0.323 |
INT J WEB GRID SERV | 1741-1106 | 0.978 |
J AMB INTEL SMART EN | 1876-1364 | 1.500 |
J COMPUT INFORM SYST | 0887-4417 | 0.822 |
J GRID COMPUT | 1570-7873 | 1.556 |
J REAL-TIME IMAGE PR | 1861-8200 | 0.962 |
MALAYS J COMPUT SCI | 0127-9084 | 0.364 |
NEW REV HYPERMEDIA M | 1361-4568 | 0.650 |
OPT SWITCH NETW | 1573-4277 | 0.962 |
PEER PEER NETW APPL | 1936-6442 | 0.417 |
ROM J INF SCI TECH | 1453-8245 | 0.188 |
SCI CHINA INFORM SCI | 1674-733X | |
SECUR COMMUN NETW | 1939-0114 | 0.356 |
SIAM J IMAGING SCI | 1936-4954 | 4.279 |
TURK J ELECTR ENG CO | 1300-0632 | 0.286 |
With 24 new journals in the list this year's pace is lower than last year's, but higher than the average rate of 18 journals per year that was the case for 2006 to 2008. However, this year's story is the international flavor of the added journals. Five journals that serve area or country-specific audiences were added to the list:
Name | ISSN | Last Year's IF |
---|---|---|
ENG INTELL SYST ELEC | 1472-8915 | 0.205 |
J COMPUT-AIDED MATER | 0928-1045 | 1.302 |
J HIGH SPEED NETW | 0926-6801 | 0.379 |
J VLSI SIG PROC SYST | 0922-5773 | 0.732 |
MED INFORM INTERNET | 1463-9238 | 1.036 |
In case you're wondering why the two journals with an impact factor above 1 were dropped, the answer is simple: none has published an issue from 2008 onward.
Name | ISSN | Δ IF |
---|---|---|
IBM J RES DEV | 0018-8646 | 2.344 |
INT J INF TECH DECIS | 0219-6220 | 1.827 |
INT J COMPUT VISION | 0920-5691 | 1.422 |
INT J NEURAL SYST | 0129-0657 | 1.249 |
COMPUT-AIDED CIV INF | 1093-9687 | 1.181 |
INT J COMPUT INT SYS | 1875-6883 | 1.159 |
MED IMAGE ANAL | 1361-8415 | 1.155 |
J OPT COMMUN NETW | 1943-0620 | 1.128 |
ARCH COMPUT METHOD E | 1134-3060 | 1.12 |
COMPUT MUSIC J | 0148-9267 | 1.102 |
The list includes many journals that cover computer science applications; a sign of a maturing and less introspective discipline. Two journals in the list, the International Journal of Computer Vision and the IBM Journal of Research and Development, regain the significant ground they lost last year.
Name | ISSN | Δ IF |
---|---|---|
COMPUT INTELL | 0824-7935 | -4.674 |
VLDB J | 1066-8888 | -2.319 |
HUM-COMPUT INTERACT | 0737-0024 | -2.19 |
ENTERP INFORM SYST | 1751-7575 | -2.023 |
DATA MIN KNOWL DISC | 1384-5810 | -1.712 |
QSAR COMB SCI | 1611-020X | -1.62 |
IEEE T SOFTWARE ENG | 0098-5589 | -1.534 |
INT J INNOV COMPUT I | 1349-4198 | -1.268 |
QUANTUM INF COMPUT | 1533-7146 | -1.095 |
EXPERT SYST APPL | 0957-4174 | -0.984 |
The story here is the The VLDB Journal: The International Journal on Very Large Data Bases, whose impact factor fell from 6.8 in 2008, to 4.5 in 2009, to 2.1 in 2010; the lowest value from 2005 onward. The list also includes three journals that publish AI-related research: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, Expert Systems with Applications, and Computational Intelligence; a troubling sign for the AI community. Finally, for the second year in a row the list includes a software engineering journal. Last year it was the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, this year it's the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Taking also into account this year's significant fall in the impact factor of the, more practitioner-oriented, IEEE Software magazine, the outlook for software engineering doesn't look hot either.
Last modified: Sunday, July 31, 2011 8:15 pm
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