The publisher of The American Journal of Cardiology ( AJC ), Jane Grochowski, in late June 2011 shared with me a copy of the most recently released Journal Citation Reports , 2010 Science Edition, which ranks among others the “Cardiac and Cardiovascular System” journals by their Impact Factors (IFs). The list included the names of 114 cardiovascular journals, their International Standard Serial Numbers, their total citations in 2010, their latest IFs, their 5-year average IFs, their Immediacy Indexes, the number of articles published in each journal in 2010, the cited half-life, the Eigenfactor™ Score, and the Article Influence Score.
Numbers of articles published in 2010 in each journal
The numbers of articles published in the 114 journals in 2010 ranged from 0 ( The American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology ) to 608 ( Annals of Thoracic Surgery ): 59 journals (52%) published ≤100 articles in 2010, 31 (27%) published 101 to 200, 11 (10%) published 201 to 300, 5 (4%) published 301 to 400, and 6 journals (5%) published >400 articles. Thus, 90 (79%) of the 114 journals (79%) published <200 articles in 2010. The 6 journals publishing >400 articles in 2010 were the following: Annals of Thoracic Surgery , 608; AJC , 604; Circulation , 549; the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery , 492; the American Journal of Physiology—Heart and Circulatory Physiology , 490, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology ( JACC ), 456.
Numbers of citations in 2010 in each journal
The numbers of citations for each of the 114 journals are listed in the Journal Citation Reports , 2010 Science Edition, as “2010 Total Cites.” What does “2010 Total Cites” mean? These are total numbers of citations for each journal from the time the journal started through 2010. The numbers of citations in the 114 journals ranged from 1 (the Russian Journal of Cardiology ) to 151,020 ( Circulation ): 51 journals (45%) had ≤100 citations, 28 (25%) had 1,001 to 2,000, 10 (9%) had 2,001 to 3,000, 11 (10%) had 3,001 to 10,000, 6 (5%) had 10,001 to 20,000, and 7 (6%) had >20,000 citations. The latter 7 journals included Circulation , 151,020; JACC , 69,405; Circulation Research , 42,343; AJC , 36,401; the American Journal of Physiology—Heart and Circulatory Physiology , 29,457, and the European Heart Journal ( EHJ ), 26,311. The length of time a journal has been in existence does not necessarily correlate with its number of total citations. The American Heart Journal started in 1926 (total citations 19,976), Circulation began in 1952 (total citations 151,020), the AJC began in 1958 (total citations 36,401), the JACC began in 1983 (total citations 69,405), and the EHJ started in 1980 (total citations 26,311). Obviously, being a major cardiologic society’s official journal plays a huge role, indeed the dominant role, in determining the number of citations a journal receives.
Numbers of citations in 2010 in each journal
The numbers of citations for each of the 114 journals are listed in the Journal Citation Reports , 2010 Science Edition, as “2010 Total Cites.” What does “2010 Total Cites” mean? These are total numbers of citations for each journal from the time the journal started through 2010. The numbers of citations in the 114 journals ranged from 1 (the Russian Journal of Cardiology ) to 151,020 ( Circulation ): 51 journals (45%) had ≤100 citations, 28 (25%) had 1,001 to 2,000, 10 (9%) had 2,001 to 3,000, 11 (10%) had 3,001 to 10,000, 6 (5%) had 10,001 to 20,000, and 7 (6%) had >20,000 citations. The latter 7 journals included Circulation , 151,020; JACC , 69,405; Circulation Research , 42,343; AJC , 36,401; the American Journal of Physiology—Heart and Circulatory Physiology , 29,457, and the European Heart Journal ( EHJ ), 26,311. The length of time a journal has been in existence does not necessarily correlate with its number of total citations. The American Heart Journal started in 1926 (total citations 19,976), Circulation began in 1952 (total citations 151,020), the AJC began in 1958 (total citations 36,401), the JACC began in 1983 (total citations 69,405), and the EHJ started in 1980 (total citations 26,311). Obviously, being a major cardiologic society’s official journal plays a huge role, indeed the dominant role, in determining the number of citations a journal receives.
IF calculation
The IF is calculated as follows: citations to “citable articles” (excludes editorials and letters to the editor [called Readers’ Comments in the AJC ]) in a single year of articles published in the previous 2 years divided by the number of citable articles published in the same 2-year period. For example, if a journal has an IF of 3 in 2010, then its articles published in 2008 and 2009 each received an average of 3 citations. Some published articles, however, in a small number of publications receive an enormous number of citations, and others receive hardly any. Thus, the IF for a particular journal can be based almost entirely on relatively few of its articles.
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