Impact Factor of Computer Science Journals 2010

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.

Journals with Highest IF

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.

Journals Added to the JCR in 2010

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:

• The International Arab Journal of Information Technology,
• Malaysian Journal of Computer Science,
• Romanian Journal of Information Science and Technology,
• Science China. Information Sciences, and
• Elektrik : Turkish journal of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences.

All of them join the list with relatively low impact factors. One thus wonders whether factors other than scientific impact, such as regional coverage, come into play when the staff at Thomson Reuters decide which journals to index. Finally, continuing the tradition of the past four years, the list includes one more security-oriented publication: Wiley's Security and Communication Networks. (For the title to make sense, you have to read it as formatted on the journal's cover: SECURITY and Communication Networks.)

Journals Dropped from the JCR in 2010

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.

Journals with the Highest Increase in IF

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.

Journals with the Highest Decrease in IF

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.

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