We have just received from Thomson Scientific the raw data of citations to articles published in TSWJ. As recent editorials and papers have argued, the data are often seriously flawed but initial analysis shows that the average number of times cited articles were cited in the next 2 calendar years are:

2006: 2.59 (range 1-12)
2007: 2.52 (range 1-15)

This is a very reasonable number for a general journal. The decrease in 2007 over 2006 is not surprising in that with an expanding article base citations in the first calendar year tend to be higher than in the second calendar year. So the larger number of 2006 articles cited in 2007 dilutes the increasing number of citations to 2005 articles during 2007. In addition, Thomson Scientific does not count citations to articles within the same calendar year, and there are many of those, and it does not count citations to journals in news articles such as Science News (see under Neural Modeling) here:http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080301/bob9.asp with references here:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080301/bob9ref.asp

If you would like to know more about Impact Factors and the alternatives then please attend the 2nd European Conference on Scientific Publishing, 4-6 September 2008, Oslo, Norway.

Further reading:

The use and misuse of bibliometric indices in evaluating scholarly performance: http://www.int-res.com/journals/esep/theme-sections/

Editorial in J Cell Biology: “Show me the Data”

Papers now published from Frontiers in Addiction Research

Extend your licence for 3 years at 5% off the 2007 rate. Very few publishers fix their rates so far in advance but TheScientificWorldJOURNAL was bold enough to do so. Please tell your librarian to take full advantage of the generous offer to subscribe for future years at 5% off the 2007 subscription rate. Offer code TSWForumWinter2007; valid until March 31st.

ECSP2: Oslo, Norway, 4-6 September, 2008
The Open Access movement in the age of the Internet has generated major interest in Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) Publishing worldwide. There are many more choices for authors to make about how, where and what they should publish, and what rights they should retain. What is the best way to communicate your results?

The 2nd European Conference on Scientific Publishing in Biomedicine & Medicine (ECSP2 ) addresses the major issues for a research audience. Its principal aim is to broaden researchers’ understanding and knowledge of the rapid changes in the scientific communication and publishing environment and its direct impact on the research community.

TheScientificWorldJOURNAL is an Open Access compliant publisher and offers authors Open Access at extremely competitive rates. Authors retain copyright.