Editorial pubs.acs.org/acscatalysis
Global Scholarly Publishing and the Impact of Catalysis
T
he scholarly publishing landscape, as it relates to catalysis, was transformed in the period of 2009−2011, when four publishers launched journals aiming to cover the full breadth of catalysis. ACS Catalysis (ACS), ChemCatChem (Wiley), Catalysis Science & Technology (RSC), and Catalysts (MDPI) all sought to provide a single platform for publishing advances from all the traditional subfields of catalysis (heterogeneous, homogeneous, and biocatalysis/enzymology). These recent comprehensive titles have presented new publishing options to authors and have attracted many researchers working in molecular catalysis and biocatalysis/enzymology to publish in a catalysis journal for the first time. My perception is that this has allowed the entire collection of catalysis journals to flourish, including legacy journals publishing in narrower domains of catalysis, as each year an increasing number of researchers submit their papers to catalysis titles. To test the hypothesis that the four new journals have accelerated citations across the whole catalysis portfolio, I examined the Clarivate Analytics journal impact factors (JIF) for an array of journals from three of the publishers above that published papers in catalysis but are not “catalysis journals” in 2001, 2008, and 2015. The selection of titles in the noncatalysis journal1 and catalysis journal2 cohorts are given below. From 2001 to 2008, the average JIF for the noncatalysis cohort grew by 19% (from 3.88 to 4.61), while the JIF for the catalysis cohort grew by 35% (from 2.31 to 3.11). It is interesting to note that the average JIF for the catalysis journals was lower, but the rate of growth higher, than the broader cohort. In the period following the launch of the four new, comprehensive catalysis titles, the average JIF for the noncatalysis cohort rose from 4.61 to 5.64 (22% growth). For the array of catalysis titles, this value rose from 3.11 to 4.81 (55% growth), again displaying faster growth than the broader collection of journals. In comparing JIFs within each cohort, the noncatalysis journals grew at about the same rate in the two periods, from 2001 to 2008 and 2008−2015, whereas the catalysis journals grew more than 50% faster after the new comprehensive titles appeared. Thanks to authors, readers, and referees, ACS Catalysis has played a significant role in the growth of the catalysis literature, achieving numerous firsts along the way. Prior to the release of the 2012 JIFs, the highest JIF for a catalysis title publishing primarily original research was 6.05 (Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis, 2011 JIF). Since the release of the 2013 JIF, ACS Catalysis has been the preeminent comprehensive catalysis journal (from a JIF perspective), being the first title in the catalysis cohort to cross the JIF 7 (2013), 9 (2014), and 10 (2016) thresholds. The current JIF for ACS Catalysis is 10.614. However, the JIF is only a single metric, and one can look to other measures of impact to provide a broader view of a journal’s performance relative to its peers. Other metrics calculated by Clarivate Analytics include the Eigenfactor Score,3 the Immediacy Index,4 Article Influence Score,5 and the Cited Half-Life.6 In the case of the Cited Half-Life, as one might expect, the value scales with the age of the journal, with the youngest journals having the lowest values (Figure 1). For the © XXXX American Chemical Society
Figure 1. Cited half-life varies linearly with journal age. Nearly all catalysis journals fit a linear trend, with the outlier, the Journal of Catalysis, having its value reported as only >10. The actual value may or may not fall on the linear trend. 2015 data.
Immediacy Index and Eigenfactor Scores released last year,3,4 ACS Catalysis had the highest performance of the comprehensive catalysis journals, and it was second highest overall among all original research journals with catalysis in the title. For the Article Influence Score,5 ACS Catalysis ranked atop the comprehensive catalysis journals and was number one among all catalysis journals publishing original research. Elsevier’s Scopus also has an array of journal metrics that are increasingly discussed, including the Cite Score,7 Scimago Journal Rank (SJR),8 and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP).9 In all three of these metrics, ACS Catalysis again ranks as the top comprehensive catalysis journal and was number one overall in the cite score and SJR among all catalysis titles publishing original research (#2 in SNIP).9 Google Scholar also ranks journals in the chemical kinetics and catalysis category using two metrics, the h5-index10 and h5-median.11 Again, among all journals with catalysis in the title, ACS Catalysis ranked #1 in h5-median and #2 in the h5-index (#1 among comprehensive catalysis journals). Thus, by any of the common citation metrics, ACS Catalysis is a high-performing journal among the broader catalysis cohort. One should note that all of the metrics above focus on citations. While citations are a key currency of researchers in numerous fields, the scientific enterprise can be distracted from its most important contributionsinnovation and knowledge generationif it focuses singularly on citations. To this end, a metric of particular importance to me is simply the extent to which the journal is an indispensable tool for the community. I hope that each morning (or however often a researcher checks for new papers) the journal that most catalysis researchers around the world are excited to check first is ACS Catalysis. As a comprehensive journal, we continue to strive to publish the most diverse mix of high impact papers in catalysis, with a
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DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.7b01764 ACS Catal. 2017, 7, 4621−4622
ACS Catalysis
Editorial
articles in all publications. A score greater than 1.00 indicates that each article in the journal has above-average influence. A score less than 1.00 indicates that each article in the journal has below-average influence.” 2016 data: ACS Catalysis 2.747; Other comprehensive journals 1.147, 1.114, 0.733; http://ipscience-help.thomsonreuters. com/incitesLiveJCR/glossaryAZgroup/g4/7790-TRS.html. (6) Cited Half-Life is the median age of the papers cited in the given year. Figure 1 includes data from ACS Catalysis, Catalysis Science & Technology, ChemCatChem, Journal of Catalysis, Catalysis Letters, Catalysis Today, Catalysis Communications, Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, Topics in Catalysis, Applied Catalysis A: General, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical, Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic, Catalysts. http://ipsciencehelp.thomsonreuters.com/inCites2Live/indicatorsGroup/ aboutHandbook/usingCitationIndicatorsWisely/citedHalfLife.html. (7) “CiteScore is essentially the average citations per document that a title receives over a three-year period.” https://www.elsevier.com/ editors-update/story/journal-metrics/citescore-a-new-metric-to-helpyou-choose-the-right-journal 2016 data: ACS Catalysis 10.30; Other comprehensive journals 5.64, 4.33, 3.44. (8) Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) http://www.scimagojr.com/ 2015 data: ACS Catalysis 4.208; Other comprehensive journals 1.895, 1.824, 1,123. (9) Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) assesses citations received relative to citations expected for the serial’s subject field. https://journalmetrics.scopus.com/ 2015 data: ACS Catalysis 2.067; Other comprehensive journals 1.276, 1.120, 0.984; #1 Journal of Catalysis 2.151. (10) The h-index of a publication is the largest number h such that at least h articles in that publication were cited at least h times each. The h5-index is the h-index for articles published in the last five complete calendar years. https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/metrics. html#metrics 2015 data: ACS Catalysis 78; Other comprehensive journals 60, 51, 17; #1 Applied Catalysis B Environmental 82. (11) The h-median of a publication is the median of the citation counts in its h-core. The h-core of a publication is a set of top cited h articles from the publication, those on which the h-index is based. https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/metrics.html#metricsh5median: 2015 data: ACS Catalysis 112; Other comprehensive journals 83, 69, 33. (12) Other comprehensive catalysis titles were less diverse in 2016: 60% heterogeneous, 32% molecular, and 8% biocatalysis/enzymology; 82% heterogeneous, 14% molecular, and 4% biocatalysis/enzymology.
distribution of 51% heterogeneous and 41% molecular and 8% biocatalysis/enzymology papers in 2016.12 Seeking to publish the top 10% of papers in catalysis, we look for submissions marked with an exceptional degree of innovation, rigor, or both. Strong support from the global catalysis community has been manifested by the tripling of submissions between 2013 and 2016. Over this period, the journal has added 10 new Associate Editors and expanded our editorial expertise across the full breadth of catalysis topical areas while adding representation from 6 new countries. We will continue to adapt our team as prescribed by the submissions from the community, always adding practicing scientists and engineers as editors who are peers within our community. In closing, the global publishing landscape in catalysis continues to grow significantly, with the degree of activity across the world being quite robust. Reflecting on the key role ACS Catalysis has played in this growth, we sincerely thank the community for helping make ACS Catalysis the preeminent comprehensive catalysis journal.
Christopher W. Jones, Editor-in-Chief
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Georgia Institute of Technology
AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Christopher W. Jones: 0000-0003-3255-5791 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Chemical Science, Chemical Communications, Organic Letters, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, European Journal of Organic Chemistry, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B (2001) C (2008, 2015), ChemPhysChem, Organometallics, Dalton Transactions, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, Biochemistry. (2) ACS Catalysis, Catalysis Science & Technology, ChemCatChem, Journal of Catalysis, Catalysis Letters, Catalysis Today, Catalysis Communications, Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, Reaction Kinetics Mechanisms and Catalysis, Applied Catalysis A: General, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical, Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic, Catalysts, Chinese Journal of Catalysis. (3) “Eigenfactor Score is based on the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the journal citation reports year, but it also considers which journals have contributed these citations so that highly cited journals will influence the network more than lesser cited journals. References from one article in a journal to another article from the same journal are removed, so that the Eigenfactor Scores are not influenced by journal self-citation.” http://ipscience-help.thomsonreuters.com/ incitesLiveJCR/glossaryAZgroup/g6/7791-TRS.html 2016 data: ACS Catalysis 0.08891; Other comprehensive journals 0.03081, 0.02982, 0.00260. (4) Immediacy Index is the average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published, providing a measure of how fast articles in a journal are cited. http://ipscience-help.thomsonreuters.com/ incitesLiveJCR/glossaryAZgroup/g7/7751-TRS.html 2016 data: ACS Catalysis 2.587; Other comprehensive journals 1.361, 1.065, 0.478; #1 Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 3.705. (5) “The Article Influence Score determines the average influence of a journal’s articles over the first five years after publication. It is calculated by multiplying the Eigenfactor Score by 0.01 and dividing by the number of articles in the journal, normalized as a fraction of all 4622
DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.7b01764 ACS Catal. 2017, 7, 4621−4622
