Data Analysis and Related Applications, Volume 2

13Developing a Bibliometric Quality Indicator for Journals Applied to the Field of Dentistry

In this work, we propose, via factor analysis, a new bibliometric indicator called the Integrated index, in order to provide a ranking of the Journal of Citation Reports alternative to that of the Journal Impact Factor. To this end, some metrics included in the JCR list are taken into account, such as the CiteScore, the SNIP and the Eigenfactor score. The Integrated index incorporates further information such as the quality of the citation sources. The performance of this new indicator is evaluated with respect to journals in the category Dentistry, Oral Surgery and Medicine.

13.1. Introduction

Although nowadays most evaluations of scientific output look to the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) as the gold standard, many authors, in the wake of Seglen (1997), have pointed out its limitations. For a critical review, readers may see Fleck (2013) or more recently Roberts (2017), both of whom hold that the JIF should be replaced as the reference by other metrics that afford more information about the quality of a journal, beyond simple citation analysis. Meanwhile, Malay (2013) warned that undue use of JIF could result in the self-citation of articles published in a given journal, reducing the citations of rival publications.

The JIF – listing the journals of a certain category of the Journal of Citation Reports (JCR) developed by the Web of Science Clarivate Analytic (2020) – can be seen as ...