[Histonet] google alternative to ISI impact ratings looks good

Sun Jul 1 12:04:02 CDT 2007

Publish or Perish is a new citation rating program based on google scholar
that seems to give more sensible results.

I think we are all now aware of the Journal IMpact Ratings game.  ISI
pretty much has control of this market and excludes piles of journals from
their analysis.  To be included in ISI a journal cannot be over
specialized, it cannot skip an issue or be late or slow, it must be older
than 2 years, it must be cited in current ISI ranked journals, it should
not cite more than 13% of its own articles during the rated interval, its
editorial board ideally has an international component, all articles must
be in eglish, and there are a number of other factors that can disqualify
a journal.  The corporate journals have a clear advantage here and they
even encourage authors to cite papers from other journals from their
corporation in order to inflate ratings (yes, its been published!).

Publish or perish (http://www.harzing.com/resources.htm#/pop.htm) is an
alternative to ISI, its free, and it uses the Google Scholar database to
formulate rankings for journals, authors, and even articles.

Granted that scholar isn't complete, but recent analyses reveal it is now
more complete than ISI since ISI only includes cites from ISI journals,
scholarly books, and ignores non-english publications among other factors.
Scholar includes all of these sources, however, it misses some old
articles, although this is changing with the expansion of BioOne, JStore,
etc.  So, from a citation analysis point of view, P&P is probably (in my
opinion) more accurate than ISI because it now covers more citations.

I did a few searches in the sciences.  PP gies a ton of stats, here are 3.

h-index = similar to the ISI rating, but not limited to last two years
(slightly modified ISI rating)
g-index = similar to h-index, slightly diffent formula
AWCR = age-weighted citation rate, ave # of citations for a paper adjusted
for the age of each paper. Of course, new journals (under 3 yr old) will
rate low no matter what.

First I list some generalized journals then a mess of herp journals by PP
ranking and give their ISI rating in parentheses.  If the journal is not
rated it will say NR in the parentheses and if it is too new or defunct,
it will have new or defunct in the paretheses.  It is very interesting how
some journals have decent ranking on PP and others are high on ISI. The
rating by PP makes more sense to me.  IF anyone thinks otherwise, let me
know!

Generalized journals:

Science (30.93):  h-index = 601, g-index = 917, AWCR = 70495
Nature(29.27): h-index = 593, g-index = 949, AWCR = 72135
BioScience (4.71): h-index = 114, g-index = 173, AWCR = 2904
Ecology (ISI = 4.51): h-index = 172, g-index = 255, AWCR = 7780
American Naturalist (ISI = 4.46): h-index = 53, g-index = 73, AWCR = 2186
American Midland Naturalist (ISI = 0.77): h-index = 49, g-index = 71, AWCR
= 814
PloS Biology (ISI = 14.7): h-index = 24, g-index = 45, AWCR = 605
Southwestern Naturalist (ISI = 0.30): h-index = 23, g-index = 31, AWCR = 318
Southeastern Naturalist (ISI = 0.33):h-index = 7, g-index = 9, AWCR = 2.39

HERP JOURNALS (ranked by AWCR):

Copeia (ISI = 0.974): h-index = 51, g-index = 77, AWCR = 1153
Journal of Herpetology (ISI = 0.817): h-index = 33, g-index = 43, AWCR = 841
Herpetologica (ISI = 0.922): h-index = 37, g-index = 51, AWCR = 668
Amphibia-Reptilia (ISI = 0.547): h-index = 20, g-index = 28, AWCR = 331
Herpetological Review (NR): h-index = 14, g-index = 17, AWCR = 216
Chelonian Conservation Biology (NR): h-index = 18, g-index = 25, AWCR = 187
Herpetological Journal(ISI = 0.71): h-index = 15, g-index = 19, AWCR = 152
Alytes (NR): h-index = h-index = 11, g-index = 16, AWCR = 78.09
Herpetological Natural History (defunct): h-index = 9, g-index = 12, AWCR
= 32.68
Russian Journal of Herpetology (NR): h-index = 8, g-index = 10, AWCR = 32.34
Applied Herpetology (NR): h-index = 4, g-index = 5, AWCR = 19.45
Cuadernos de herpetologia (NR): h-index = 6, g-index = 7, AWCR = 14.27
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NR): h-index = 6, g-index = 8, AWCR =
12.86
British Journal of Herpetology (NR): h-index = 6, g-index = 11, AWCR = 7.34
Acta Herpetologica (new): h-index = 4, g-index = 5, AWCR = 5.78
Contemporary Herpetology (NR): h-index = 4, g-index = 6, AWCR = 5.19
Journal of Kansas Herpetology (NR): h-index = 1, g-index = 1, AWCR = 1.80
Manouria (NR): h-index = 2, g-index = 2, AWCR = 1.59
Brazilian Journal of Herpetology (NR): h-index = 1, g-index = 1, AWCR = 0.06.
South American Journal of Herpetology (new) : h-index = 1, g-index = 1,
AWCR = 0

Malcolm L. McCallum
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Texas A&M University Texarkana
2600 Robison Rd.
Texarkana, TX 75501
O: 1-903-223-3134
H: 1-903-791-3843
Homepage: https://www.eagle.tamut.edu/faculty/mmccallum/index.html
VISIT HERPETOLOGICAL CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY www.herpconbio.org <http://www.herpconbio.org> 
A New Journal Published in Partnership with Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
and the World Congress of Herpetology.
Summer Teaching Schedule & Office Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 
     Statistics (Math 453) 4-5:50 pm
     Office Hours: 3-4 pm

"Set high standards for yourself, but don't judge others by those standards,"  
- Gary Emmert (University of Memphis)

________________________________

From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu on behalf of kemlo
Sent: Sun 7/1/2007 10:06 AM
To: Asf2k3 <@t> aol.com; histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: RE: [Histonet] Re: Histonet Digest, Vol 43, Issue 40

Just enough.

Mr Kemlo Rogerson MSc DMS MIBiol CBiol FIBMS
Pathology Services Manager
Weston General Hospital
North Somerset

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of
Asf2k3 <@t> aol.com
Sent: 01 July 2007 00:40
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Re: Histonet Digest, Vol 43, Issue 40

When trimming blocks, do you have to face tissue all the way or just
enough? A

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