Introduction. The effect of journal title changes on impact factors

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1 The effect of journal title changes on impact factors 57 Learned Publishing (2005)18, Introduction One of the key aspects of a journal is its title. The title is its brand name, its identity, and carries many important factors for the journal s usage within the research community 1 including: identification of content, approach and likely quality of its papers. As publishers, the breadth of journal titles that we publish outlines our strategy and commitment to science. The continued launch of new titles reflects continued growth within the scientific community, since it is growth of research that stimulates new journal launches. 2 Inevitably at some point, as is the nature of science, research fields take a new direction and the journals in the field need to adapt accordingly. In most cases these changes are handled by widening a journal s scope or appointing new editors as experts within the modified field, none of which significantly affects the direction of the publication. However, in some cases, the changes within a scientific field are so profound that these simpler changes to the journal are not enough and one of the most difficult publishing decisions has to be made itistimetochangethejournal s title. Journal title changes can cause problems. Librarians, in particular, have written of the many problems that journal title changes have caused in serial management and caused increased costs, workload and frustration. 3 A US study of biomedical journals indicated that there was a need to introduce a standard for title change reporting. 4 It could be argued that many of these elements of journal title changes have been reduced in the digital age where journal collections are managed in an online environment. A key problem with changing a journal s title is the effect of that change on the impact factor, the measure used within the industry to measure a journal s citation The effect of journal title changes on impact factors David Tempest Elsevier David Tempest 2005 ABSTRACT: One of the most misunderstood aspects of journal management is the effect of journal title changes on the ThomsonScientific impact factor. This study analyses journals that changed their title in 1994 and 1995 and ascertains the period of time taken to recover the impact factor. Effects of subject classification and of the size of the journal are also investigated to see if recovery time depends on them. The analysis shows that recovery times are longer than predicted. Suggestions are made on how publishers may approach communication of journal title changes to minimize the effects on the impact factor. David Tempest

2 58 D. Tempest ahighdegree of variability in impact factors between different subject fields activity and inferred quality. The impact factor, which is calculated by Thomson- Scientific, is defined by dividing the number of citations in year x to articles published in years x 1andx 2bythetotalnumber of source items published in year x 1and x 2. 5 When a journal changes its title, Thomson- Scientific begin a new record in their database for the new title variant 6 and the calculation as seen above is affected during thechangeforaperiodoftwojournalcitation reports: Year 1 the old title remains with a slightly depressed impact factor as authors begin to cite the new variant. Year 2 an entry for both the new variant and the old variant appear, both of which are representative of only one years worth of data and are consequently depressed in value Year 3 the new variant is now the only entry for the journal. The magnitude of the citations to the new variant is dependent on several factors, especially how quickly authors recognize a title change has occurred and begin to cite the new variant. This recovery period of a journal s impact factor following a title change is the subject of this paper, i.e. how long does it take for a journal to regain its impact factor after a title change? The following questions will be addressed: How are impact factors affected following a journal title change? What is the average impact factor recovery period in years? Does the subject field of the journal affect the recovery period? Is the recovery period affected by the size of the journal? Methodology Data was prepared from the CD-ROM version of the ThomsonScientific Journal Citation Reports, Science edition The study journals were chosen as those identified by ThomsonScientific as changing their title in 1994 and To simplify the journal selection, only journals thathadasimpletitlechangewereincluded in the journal set; those that had been merged or split were excluded from the analysis due to problems with identifying which journal variants to measure. Impact factors were recorded for each journalfrom1992uptothetitlechange year indicated by ThomsonScientific, either 1994 or This established the pre-titlechange baseline for each journal. Following the title change the new title variant s impact factor was then recorded for each year up to 2002; this established the post-title-change impact factor history. Each journal was then analysed by measuring the impact factor value prior to the change IF P and then recording the impact factor value after the change IF A.This was the first indicator of the recognition level of the new title, i.e. when authors recognized that a title change had occurred. The recovery period, R, was then measured for each journal and defined as the length of time in years taken for IF A to be greater than or equal to IF P. R = t (years) for IF A >= IF P This method was carried out separately for the journals changing titles in 1994 and those changing title in 1995 and all indicators calculated for each journal. This was to allow for two comparative data sets. R was then calculated across the whole journal sets to establish the average length of time for a journal to recover its impact factor following a title change (R mean ). To establish the full range of recovery times the maximum time for recovery, R max,andthe minimum length of time for recovery, R min, were also recorded for each set. However as Mabe and Amin 6 have shown, there is a high degree of variability in impact factors between different subject fields. Given that this analysis was across all journals in the Science Citation Index, it was decided to establish R mean for four major subject fields; environmental sciences, life sciences, medicine, and physical and chemical sciences. This was to determine if there were any field differences in recovery times. The journal categorization was performed by grouping the ThomsonScientific subject

3 The effect of journal title changes on impact factors 59 Table 1 Journals changing name in 1994 with recovery time and subject area classification Journal Impact factor, IF Recovery time, R (years) (IF P) 1996 (IF A) ACH-Models Chem P ACM Comput Surv P Arch Pediat Adol Med M Artif Cell Blood Sub L Biol Rhythm Res M Breeding Sci L Eur J Endocrinol L Eur J Plant Pathol E Eur J Soil Sci E IEEE T Dielect El In P Insight P Instrum Sci Technol P Int J Hum-Comput St P J Accid Emerg Med M J Adv Mater P J Am Coll Surgeons M J Avian Biol L J Cardiovasc Diagn P M J Chem Crystallogr P J Invest Med M J Neuro-Ophthalmol L J Opt Technol P Med Eng Phys M Metall Mater Trans A P Metall Mater Trans B P Microbiol Res L Microbiol-UK L Minim Invas Neurosur M Mol Membr Biol L Occup Environ Med M Parasite L Pathol Int M Phys Fluids P Phys Plasmas P Radiat Meas P Res Commun Mol Path L Software-Conc Tool P Transfus Clin Biol M Zool Stud L Zool-Anal Complex Sy L E, environmental sciences; L, life sciences; M, medicine; P, physical & chemical sciences. categories of the title change journals into these four main fields. The R mean, R max and R min values were then compared for each subject field for each year and then overall for each sample year measured. Another determinant factor for influencing the impact factor, again according to Mabe and Amin s research, is the size of the journal. To test this, the number of articles published, as recorded by Thomson- Scientific, in the year of the title change, i.e or 1995 was recorded and compared to the recovery time, R, foreachjournal.this would establish if the size of the journal had an influence on the length of the recovery time. Results Journal title changes and impact factor recovery Forty journals were included in the analysis that changed title in 1994 and 46 journals were included that changed title in Table 1 shows the impact factor data for journals changing title in 1994 and Table 2

4 60 D. Tempest Table 2 Journals changing name in 1995 with recovery time and subject area classification Journal Impact factor, IF Recovery time, R (years) (IF P) 1996 (IF A) Afr Entomol M Am J Health-Syst Ph M Anim Sci E Arch Physiol Biochem L Biochem Mol Med L Clin Drug Invest M Comput Appl Math P Comput Vis Image Und P Contrib Zool E Dermatol Surg M Earth Obs Remot Sen E Electr Eng P Eur J Oral Sci M Eur J Vasc Endovasc M Exp Oncol M Food Sci Technol Int E Formulary M Genome Res L Graph Model Im Proc P Heat Mass Transfer P Histochem Cell Biol L IIE Solutions P Inflamm Res L Invertebr Biol L Isot Environ Health E Izv Math P J Appl Bot-Angew Bot E J Ceram Soc Jpn P J Chart Inst Water E E J Clin Ligand Assay P J Inflamm M J Mol Med-Imm M J Pediat Hematol Onc M J Recept Signal Tr R L J Refract Surg M J Trace Elem Med Bio P J Zool Syst Evol Res L Mar Freshwater Res E Neurobiol Learn Mem L Psychiat Clin Neuros M Publ Astron Soc Aust P Qjm-mon J Assoc Phys M Quantum Semicl Opt P Sb Math P Sci Justice M Wild Environ Med E E, environmental sciences; L, life sciences; M, medicine; P, physical & chemical sciences. Subject area shows the data for Both tables include the R valueandthesubjectclassificationfor each journal. The subject classifications used are: E, environmental sciences; L, life sciences;m,medicine;andp,physicaland chemical sciences. The first result of the study indicated that in 1994 title changes for 80% of journals IF A was lower than IF P and in 1995, for 59% of journals IF A was lower than IF P. This decrease is expected since the IF A value is based on only one year s worth of citation and article data. 5 Within the results, if IF A is never greater than or equal to IF P, then the maximum number of years available for R is applied, for 1994 journal title changes this is eight years, for 1995 this is seven years. The R mean, R max and R min values for each data set are illustrated in Table 3. R mean for

5 The effect of journal title changes on impact factors 61 Table 3 Summary data including R mean, R max and R min values Subject area n Total recovery time, R (years) R mean R max R min 1994 results All E L M P results All E L M P Combined All E L M P E, environmental sciences; L, life sciences; M, medicine; P, physical & chemical sciences. Table 4 Pearson statistics for journal title changes compared to journal article data in 1994 and 1995 Correlations R Correlations R Recovery time, R, Pearson Significant n Pearson Significant n Recovery time, R, Pearson Significant n Pearson Significant n is 3.55 years, while R mean for 1995 is 2.35 years. If both data sets are combined, R mean equals 2.91 years. Analysing the 1994 journal title change data, it can be seen that environmental sciences journals show the shortest recovery time of 1.5 years (although the number of journals is low), in contrast, physical and chemical sciences show the longest recovery time of 4.27 years, almost three times longer The 1995 data show the same pattern. Environmental sciences again shows the shortest recovery time at 1.89 years (this with a higher number of journals included) and physical and chemical sciences show the longest recovery time, but not to the same magnitude, at 2.85 years. When the two data sets are combined the order of recovery time is, from shortest to longest, environmental sciences, medicine, life sciences, and physical and chemical sciences. Journal size and impact factor recovery When the recovery times, R, inyearsofthe journals that changed their titles in 1994 and 1995 are compared to the number of articles published in the same years, there is practically no relationship between the two variables. Only 38 journals from 40 in 1994 and 45 journals from 46 had journal article data available. Table 4 illustrates the bivariate statistics between journal article counts and the revcovery time. The results of this statistical test indicate a Pearson of for the 1994 dataset and for the 1995 dataset, indicating an extremely low between the number of articles published in the title change journal and its recovery period. Consequently there does not appear to be any link between the impact factor recovery

6 62 D. Tempest after the change of title, ajournal s impact factor is affected for longer than originally thought period and the size of the journal undergoing the title change. Conclusions When staff at Elsevier have asked my advice in the past on journal title changes, I have always indicated to them that it would negatively affect the impact factor for a couple of years and that they should only change the title if really necessary. The results of this study indicate that after the change of title, a journal s impact factor is affected for longer than originally thought. Indeed it is quitepossibleforthe impact factor to be affected for three years or more, based on these results. This means that the reasons for changing the title which were discussed above need to be carefully examined before making the decision. Given that the impact factor is now used to assess research funding, guide author submissions and to give an indication of journal quality, title changes could have even more serious implications than anticipated. This study indicates that the subject field of a journal is an important factor when considering a journal title change. Decisions on journal title alterations, especially in the physical and chemical sciences, will now need to be considered very seriously, as effects on the impact factor of up to four years could be experienced in these subject fields. The other main result of this study indicates that all these journal recovery periods and subject variations affect the impact factor irrespective of the journal s size. This was a surprising outcome, given the lower fluctuation seen in impact factor variability 6 in larger journals. Possible further studies As more impact factor data becomes available, it would be advantageous to repeat this study using more recent impact factors. Furthermore, by studying the marketing campaigns of publishers on title change journals, the effects of marketing activity on the recovery period of the journal could be assessed. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my colleague Steve Carroll, Director, Research Office, for his assistance with the statistical aspectsofthisarticle.iwouldalsoliketothankisabel Czech from ThomsonScientific for granting me permission to use the data in this study. References 1. Mabe, M. Digital dilemmas: electronic challenges for the scientific journal publisher. ASLIB Proceedings, 2001:53(3), Mabe, M. The growth and number of journals. Serials, 2003:16(2), Foggin, CM. Title changes: another view. Serials Librarian, 1992:23(1/2), Van B Afes, Wrynn P. Biomedical journal title changes: reasons, trends and impact. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1993:81(1), Garfield, E. ISI essay: the impact factor. See Robertson J. ISI Essay: understanding the JCR: a series. See 22.html/ 7. Mabe,M.andAmin,M.Impactfactors:useand abuse. See pdfs/perspectives1.pdf David Tempest Senior Publishing Information Manager Academic Relations Elsevier The Boulevard Langford Lane Kidlington OX5 1GB d.tempest@elsevier.com