The Eigen factor score

Eigenfactor score may be taken as modified five year impact factor. It aggregates the citations to ISI journals in both the sciences and social sciences with elimination of self citations. The Eigenfactor score of a journal is an estimate of the percentage of time that library users spend with that journal. The Eigenfactor algorithm corresponds to a simple model of research in which readers follow chains of citations as they move from journal to journal. Imagine that a researcher goes to the library and selects a journal article at random. After reading the article, the researcher selects at random one of the citations from the article. She then proceeds to the journal that was cited, reads a random article there, and selects a citation to direct her to her next journal volume. In order to measure the importance of a journal to the scientific community, Eigenfactor Metrics was created, which are designed to reflect the prestige and influence of scholarly journals. The theory behind Eigenfactor Metrics is that a single citation from a high-quality journal may hold more value than multiple citations from more peripheral publications. With a dataset maintained over several decades, Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports (JCR) provide the perfect starting point for building on the concept of journal influence. The Eigenfactor Score and Impact Factor proceed from the same underlying data, but they measure different aspects of journal citation influence. While the Eigenfactor algorithm measures total citation volume, the creators of the Eigenfactor view the Impact Factor as a measure of prestige. For example, says Professor Bergstrom, The Eigenfactor Score answers the question: how valuable is it to have Nature in your library? Impact Factor answers the question: how prestigious is having one article in Nature? As with Impact Factor, the Eigenfactor Score cannot be applied carelessly/incautiously, but needs to be used in context. Eigenfactor Scores can correct, to some degree, for the difference in citation patterns that are seen within large, complex subject areas that include several clusters of journals with a more specific focus. For example, within the Economics field there can be subtopics such as econometrics, development economics, market theory, as well as the application of economics to particular areas of study, such as agricultural economics. The Eigen factor score, EF, is defined as

Article Influence
After introducing the Eigenfactor Score, its creators answered the research communitys interest in article-prestige rankings by developing the Article Influence measure. The Article
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Influence Score determines the average influence of each of a journals articles over the first five years after its publication. This measure is roughly analogous to the Journal Impact Factor in that it is a ratio of a journals citation influence to the size of the journals article contribution. To calculate the Article Influence score, the Eigenfactor score of a journal is divided by the number of articles in the journal, normalized so that the average paper in Journal Citation Reports would have an Article Influence Score of one. It may be taken as Standardized Impact Factor for five years. Article influence measures the relative importance of an ISI journal on per article basis. Article Influence = Eigen factor Score/ fraction of all ISI articles published by ISI journal The Article Influence score for each journal is a measure of the per-article citation influence of the journal. The Article Influence score is calculated as

Where the Eigen factor is score for journal normalized article vector.

and

is the

- the entry of the

Immediacy index
The journal Immediacy Index indicates how quickly articles in a journal are cited. The Immediacy Index is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles published in a given year by the number of articles published in that year. Because it is a per-article average, the Immediacy Index tends to discount the advantage of large journals over small ones. However, frequently issued journals may have an advantage because an article published early in the year has a better chance of being cited than one published later in the year. Many publications that publish infrequently or late in the year have low Immediacy Indexes. For comparing journals specializing in cutting-edge research, the immediacy index can provide a useful perspective. It may be understood as Zero year impact factor of an ISI journal. An immediacy index is a measure of how topical and urgent work published in a scientific journal is. Along with the better known impact factor measure, it is a calculated each year by the Institute for Scientific Information for those journals which it indexes; both impact factors and immediacy indices are published annually in the Journal Citation Reports The immediacy index is calculated based on the papers published in a journal in a single calendar year. For example, the 2005 immediacy index for a journal would be calculated as follows:

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Immediacy Index = Total citations to papers published in ISI journal in a JCR year/ Total papers published ISI journal in a JCR year As with the impact factor, there are some nuances to this: ISI excludes certain article types (such as news items, correspondence, and errata) from the denominator.

Cited half life

ISI defines and explains cited half-life as follows: The cited half-life is the number of publication years from the current year which account for 50% of current citations received. This figure helps you evaluate the age of the majority of cited articles published in a journal. Each journals cited half-life is shown in the Journal Rankings Window. Only those journals cited 100 or more times have a cited half-life. The chronological distribution of the cumulative percent of citations received per publication year is shown in the Cited Half-Life Calculation dialog box. A higher or lower cited half-life does not imply any particular value for a journal. For instance, a primary research journal might have a longer cited half-life than a journal that provides rapid communication of current information. Cited Half- Life figures may be useful to assist in collection management and archiving decisions. Dramatic changes in Cited Half-Lifes over time may indicate a change in a journals format. Studying the half-life data of the journals in a comparative study may indicate differences in format and publication history.2 To illustrate cited half-life, consider the ISI citation figures for Nature Cell Biology, Communications in Partial Differential Equations, and Mathematische Annalen listed in table 1. Data from 2003 are the most recent available. In 2003, Nature Cell Biology had an ISI cited half-life of 2.7 years. Specifically, the total number of citations referring to Nat. Cell. Biol. from all the journals tracked by ISI, 5.08 percent were to articles published in 2003; 28.84 percent to articles published in 2002 or 2003; 57.62 percent to articles published in 2001, 2002, or 2003; and 84.39 percent to articles published in 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003. Thus, with just the four most recent years of Nat. Cell. Biol. readily available, a researcher would be able retrieve more than 80 percent of the current citations to it. Communications in Partial Differential Equations had a cited half-life of 9.5 years. Of the total number of citations referring to Comm. PDE, 0.52 percent were to articles published in 2003; 3.60 percent to articles published in 2002 or 2003; 10.72 percent to articles published in 2001, 2002 or 2003; and 17.99 percent to articles published in 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003. Thus, with just the four most recent years of Comm. PDE available, a researcher would be able to retrieve less than 20 percent of the citations to it.

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