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2008.06.27

Impact Factor of Computer Science Journals 2007

The ISI Web of Knowledge recently published the 2007 Journal Citation Reports. Following a similar study I performed last year, here is my analysis of the current status and trends for the impact factor in computer science journals.

Let me start with an overview of the method I followed. I performed my analysis on the 382 journals appearing under the 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 is higher than that of most journals.

Journals with Highest IF

RankNameISSNIF
1MIS QUART0276-77835.826
2ACM COMPUT SURV0360-03005.250
3BIOINFORMATICS1367-48035.039
4VLDB J1066-88883.818
5COGNITIVE BRAIN RES0926-64103.769
6NEUROINFORMATICS1539-27913.750
7IEEE T PATTERN ANAL0162-88283.579
8MED IMAGE ANAL1361-84153.505
9ACM T GRAPHIC0730-03013.413
10J WEB SEMANT1570-82683.410
As in 2007, note here the high impact factor journals touching on life-sciences. This is more an indication of impact factor variations between various fields than an inherent quality property of these journals that distinguishes then from other computer science publications. Also interesting is the fact that MISQ is heading the list ahead of ACM Computing Surveys, which publishes exclusively highly-citable survey articles.

Journals Added to the JCR in 2007

CLUSTER COMPUT
COGN SYST RES
COMPUT CONCRETE
COMPUT METHOD BIOMEC
CRYPTOLOGIA
DIGIT INVEST
ELECTRON COMMER R A
IEEE COMPUT INTELL M
IEEE T INF FOREN SEC
IET COMPUT DIGIT TEC
IET COMPUT VIS
INT J ARTIF INTELL T
INT J NEURAL SYST
INT J WAVELETS MULTI
INTELL DATA ANAL
J CELL AUTOM
J OPT NETW
J STAT SOFTW
J WEB SEMANT
NEURAL NETW WORLD

Notable in the above list is Elsevier's Journal of Web Semantics which got an ISI impact factor in 2007 and went straight into the computer science top ten list. The addition of Cryptologia deservedly increases the number of cryptological journals with an ISI impact factor to three, thus lessening the pressure from the cryptological community on computer security publication avenues.

Journals Dropped from the JCR in 2007

COMPUT HUMANITIES
IEE P-COMPUT DIG T
MODEL IDENT CONTROL

Here I lament the dropping of Springer's Computers and the Humanities. On March 21st, 2005 the journal was renamed into Language Resources and Evaluation, but that apparently didn't help stave off its decline. I find this journal's travails a sign of lessening interest on scientific work that doesn't offer marketable returns.

Journals with the Highest Increase in IF

NameISSNΔ IF
IBM J RES DEV0018-86461.423
REAL-TIME IMAGING1077-20141.284
COGNITIVE BRAIN RES0926-64101.201
ACM T SOFTW ENG METH1049-331X1.156
INFORM SCIENCES0020-02551.144
ACM COMPUT SURV0360-03001.12
MIS QUART0276-77831.095
INT J INNOV COMPUT I1349-41980.813
IEEE MICRO0272-17320.743
ARTIF INTELL0004-37020.737

The IF increase of IEEE Micro shows that this magazine, after some years of floundering at the end of the PC revolution, has again found an appropriate niche bringing itself back on a promising track. The increase of the ACM Computing Surveys IF is a response to a corresponding decrease last year.

Journals with the Highest Decrease in IF

NameISSNΔ IF
ACM T INFORM SYST1046-8188-3.09
INT J COMPUT VISION0920-5691-2.704
IEEE T EVOLUT COMPUT1089-778X-1.344
J CRYPTOL0933-2790-1.009
IEEE INTELL SYST1541-1672-0.975
INFORM RETRIEVAL1386-4564-0.974
MACH LEARN0885-6125-0.912
J AM MED INFORM ASSN1067-5027-0.885
IEEE T MOBILE COMPUT1536-1233-0.834
IEEE T PATTERN ANAL0162-8828-0.727

Here I can't help but note the appearance of four journals that publish broadly related research: IEEE Intelligent Systems, Machine Learning, IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis, and Information Retrieval. A sign of trouble ahead?

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