Zhou Yangping
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Haidian, Beijing, 100084, China.
Heliyon. 2022 Aug 19;8(8):e10292. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10292. eCollection 2022 Aug.
The effectivity of journal impact factor (JIF) is questioned in evaluating academic players. Coercive self-citation was widely criticized and Clarivate annually suppressed journals with high journal self-citation (JSC) rates. Recently, some journals significantly increased their articles but their JIFs and JSC rates were diversified which lacks reasonable explanations. Here, we revealed the complexities of the dynamical interactions among different influence factors and different components of journal citation. Journal citation frequencies have strong correlations with JSC rates regarding citable items, significant correlations with numbers of journals' articles and negative significant correlations with JSC rates regarding total citations. Journal citation consists of JSC, intradisciplinary non-JSC and interdisciplinary non-JSC. JSC has the quickest dynamic and interdisciplinary non-JSC has the slowest dynamic while most journals are more cited by interdisciplinary citations. Journal citation is initially decided by the number of citable items. Journal's share (citing articles) in related disciplines influence JSC and intradisciplinary non-JSC positively and negatively, respectively. Multiple citations promoted by the increase in articles, the skewness of the topic profile, preference-related self-citation and anomalous self-citation are of benefit to citation. The complex dynamical interactions result in increment effects of the number of articles acting on JIF, which is stronger for JSC and citable items. The increase in articles also promotes intradisciplinary non-JSC when the journal's shares in related disciplines are low. This process will be reversed after the journal's shares become high enough which may finally decrease its impact factor. It is quicker for the journal with a stronger intradisciplinary citation. The calculational results of the average JIFs of selected journals agree with the statistical results. In addition, we can explain the related situations of some journals. Finally, we suggested that the JSC rate in terms of citable items should be considered for judging the level of JSC.
期刊影响因子（JIF）在评估学术参与者方面的有效性受到质疑。强制自引受到广泛批评，科睿唯安每年都会压制期刊自引率（JSC）较高的期刊。最近，一些期刊的文章数量显著增加，但其JIF和JSC率却呈现出多样化，缺乏合理的解释。在此，我们揭示了不同影响因素与期刊引用不同组成部分之间动态相互作用的复杂性。关于可引用项目，期刊引用频率与JSC率有很强的相关性，与期刊文章数量有显著相关性，而与总引用量的JSC率有显著负相关性。期刊引用由JSC、学科内非JSC和跨学科非JSC组成。JSC的动态变化最快，跨学科非JSC的动态变化最慢，而大多数期刊被跨学科引用的次数更多。期刊引用最初由可引用项目的数量决定。期刊在相关学科中的份额（被引文章）分别对JSC和学科内非JSC有正向和负向影响。文章增加带来的多次引用、主题分布的偏态、偏好相关的自引和异常自引都有利于引用。复杂的动态相互作用导致文章数量对JIF产生增量效应，对JSC和可引用项目的影响更强。当期刊在相关学科中的份额较低时，文章的增加也会促进学科内非JSC。当期刊的份额变得足够高时，这个过程将会逆转，最终可能会降低其影响因子。对于学科内引用较强的期刊，这个过程更快。所选期刊平均JIF的计算结果与统计结果一致。此外，我们可以解释一些期刊的相关情况。最后，我们建议在判断JSC水平时应考虑基于可引用项目的JSC率。
