Eigenfactor
ThemesEigenfactor
What is this about?
Eigenfactor is a method developed as an alternative metric to the impact factor (IF). Since IF does not consider sources of citations, those from prestigious journals seem to be worth no more than citations from less influential publications.[1] Eigenfactor, on the other hand, aims to evaluate the influence of journals in order to help researchers navigate the scholarly literature.[1][2][3]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bergstrom C T, West J D, Wiseman M A. The Eigenfactor™ Metrics. J Neurosci. 2008;28(45):11433-11434.
- ↑ Eigenfactor.org. About the Eigenfactor Project. [cited 2020 Oct 14]. Available from: http://www.eigenfactor.org/about.php.
- ↑ Fersht A. The most influential journals: Impact Factor and Eigenfactor. PNAS. 2009;106(17):6883-6884.
Why is this important?
The Eigenfactor metrics, developed in 2007 by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West,[1] measures the number of times articles from the journals published in the past five years have been cited in Thompson Scientific’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR).[2][3] It considers which journals have contributed to these citations,[4] therefore this approach identifies the most influential journals, those which are cited by other influential journals.[5][6][7][8]
Unlike the IF, the Eigenfactor Score counts citations to journals in social sciences and humanities as well, and it eliminates self-citations.[2][4][7] It considers citations in the period of five years, in contrast to the IF’s number of citations over a two-year window.[8] This difference impacts fields where it takes longer for articles to receive citations.[8] For example, the average article in leading cell biology journal can receive 10 to 30 citations in two years, whereas the average article in leading mathematics journal can receive 2 citations in the same time scale. Using the entire citation network, the algorithm takes into account these differences and enables better and more accurate comparison of different research areas.[1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Eigenfactor.org. About the Eigenfactor Project. [cited 2020 Oct 14]. Available from: http://www.eigenfactor.org/about.php.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Oxford LibGuides. Bibliometrics & Citation Tracking: Eigenfactor. 2020 Jul 29. [cited 2020 Oct 14]. Available from: https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/c.php?g=422992&p=2890485.
- ↑ Enago academy. Eigenfactor vs. Impact Factor: How are They Different? 2019 Jul 19. [cited 2020 Oct 14]. Available from: https://www.enago.com/academy/eigenfactor-vs-impact-factor/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chang C L, McAleer M J, Oxley L. Journal Impact Factor Versus Eigenfactor and Article Influence. KIER Working Papers 737, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research. 2010.
- ↑ Bergstrom C. Eigenfactor. Measuring the value and prestige of scholarly journals. C&RL News. 2007;314-316.
- ↑ Kianfiar H R, Sadeghi R. Comparison Between Impact Factor, Eigenfactor Metrics, and SCimago Journal Rank Indicator of Pediatric Neurology Journals. Acta Inform Med. 2014;22(2): 103-106.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cantin M, Muñoz M, Roa I. Comparison between Impact Factor, Eigenfactor Score, and SCImago Journal Rank Indicator in Anatomy and Morphology Journals. Int J. Morphol. 2015;33(3):1183-1188.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 West J D. Eigenfactor: ranking and mapping scientific knowledge [dissertation]. Seattle: University of Washington;2010. p. 140.
For whom is this important?
What are the best practices?
The website www.eigenfactor.org reports measures for publications indexed by JCR as well as journals, books, newspapers, and other reference items that are referred to by these publications.[1] The number of journals has increased each year. In 1997 the website listed 6,439 journals, whereas in 2014 it measured influence of 11,200 journals.[2]
Two principle scores are calculated: Eigenfactor score and Article Influence score. Eigenfactor scores are scaled so that the scores of all journals listed in JCR sum up to 100. If a journal has an Eigenfactor score of 1.0, it has 1% of the total influence of all indexed publications. In 2014, the journal PLoS One had the highest Eigenfactor score, with a value of 1.533.[2] Since larger journals will have more citations, they will subsequently have larger Eigenfactor scores.[2][3][1] However, the most prestigious journals are not necessarily the largest, but the ones that receive the most citations per article. With regards to that, the Article Influence score measures the influence of a journal per article. It is calculated as a journal’s Eigenfactor Score divided by the number of articles in that journal and normalized so that the average article in the JCR has an Article Influence score of 1.[4] Therefore, if an Article Influence score of a journal is 3.0, then the articles of that journals are on average three times as influential as the average article in JCR.[5] In 2014, the journal CA-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians had the highest Article Influence score, with value of 3.95.[2]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bergstrom C. Eigenfactor. Measuring the value and prestige of scholarly journals. C&RL News. 2007;314-316.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Eigenfactor.org. About the Eigenfactor Project. [cited 2020 Oct 14]. Available from: http://www.eigenfactor.org/about.php
- ↑ Enago academy. Eigenfactor vs. Impact Factor: How are They Different? 2019 Jul 19. [cited 2020 Oct 14]. Available from: https://www.enago.com/academy/eigenfactor-vs-impact-factor/.
- ↑ West J D. Eigenfactor: ranking and mapping scientific knowledge [dissertation]. Seattle: University of Washington;2010. p. 140.
- ↑ Bergstrom C T, West J D, Wiseman M A. The Eigenfactor™ Metrics. J Neurosci. 2008;28(45):11433-11434.
Andrijana Perković Paloš contributed to this theme. Latest contribution was Oct 19, 2021
