Normalized impact factor (NIF): An adjusted method for calculating the citation rate of biomedical journals

The interests in journal impact factor (JIF) in scientific communities have grown over the last decades. The JIFs are used to evaluate journals quality and the papers published therein. JIF is a discipline specific measure and the comparison between the JIF dedicated to different disciplines is inad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of biomedical informatics 2011-04, Vol.44 (2), p.216-220
Main Authors: Owlia, P., Vasei, M., Goliaei, B., Nassiri, I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bibliometrics
Biomedical sciences
Citation
Databases, Bibliographic
Impact factor
Journal Impact Factor
Periodicals as Topic - standards
Publishing
Scientometrics
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Summary:The interests in journal impact factor (JIF) in scientific communities have grown over the last decades. The JIFs are used to evaluate journals quality and the papers published therein. JIF is a discipline specific measure and the comparison between the JIF dedicated to different disciplines is inadequate, unless a normalization process is performed. In this study, normalized impact factor (NIF) was introduced as a relatively simple method enabling the JIFs to be used when evaluating the quality of journals and research works in different disciplines. The NIF index was established based on the multiplication of JIF by a constant factor. The constants were calculated for all 54 disciplines of biomedical field during 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009years. Also, ranking of 393 journals in different biomedical disciplines according to the NIF and JIF were compared to illustrate how the NIF index can be used for the evaluation of publications in different disciplines. The findings prove that the use of the NIF enhances the equality in assessing the quality of research works produced by researchers who work in different disciplines.
ISSN:1532-0464
1532-0480
DOI:10.1016/j.jbi.2010.11.002