CHOOSING THE APPROPRIATE MEDIUM FOR YOUR

PUBLICATION: JOURNAL SELECTION TACTICS

SCIENTIFIC
LAWRENCE LIBERTI, MS, RPh
VP, GENERAL MANAGER
JUNE 2008

Overview
Journal Types
Assessing Journal Characteristics
Comparative Class Analyses
Conclusions

Journal Selection is Key to Physicians

Liberti, Casebeer et al: 64th Annual AMWA Conference, Oct 2004, St. Louis MO

Journal Types
Trade
Peer-reviewed
Print
Online
Open-access

Society Sponsored
Commissioned article journals

Open to Rapid
Primary
Your
Comms Research
Ideas
Trade

Print/ Online

Open Access

Commission
ed

+++ +++
++

+++ +++
+

Reviews

Suppls

+++

+++

++

+++

+++

+++

++

Assessing Journal
Characteristics

Journal statistics provide a systematic and

objective way to measure the influence of journals,
identify trends, categorize and characterize
journals

Multiple metrics need to be considered

Objective metrics
Subjective metrics
Confusing metrics

Sponsorship
Society-sponsored
Commercial published
Partnership of society/academia commercial
publisher

Editorial Board
Does one exist?
What is its role?
How often do members changes?
Are there potential conflicts of interest?

Reach/Readership/Audience
Does the journal reach the desired audience?
By what measure(s) is this determined?
Quality of audience
Quantity of audience

Ulrichs Periodicals Directory

http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/

Publication Lag Time

How long does it take to get an article
Reviewed
Accepted
Published

How important is rapidity of publication to the

particular research?

Source: TMMS, June 2008 Atrial Fibrillation TA

Quality Scores
What metrics can be used to measure the quality
and relevance of information in a journal?

Quality Scores
Faculty of 1000 (www.f1000medicine.com)
Articles are identified and scored by Faculty Members
Score 3,6,9 (recommend, must read, exceptional)
Consistency, clinical relevance?

Quality Scores
READER Scoring system
Relevance- to my practice
Education influence on behavior
Applicability could it be used in practice?
Discrimination- Quality of methodology and presentation
Evaluation- scoring using above criteria
Reaction- Four categories
Classic paper, immediate impact
Important enough to be filed
Of possible interest
Ignore
MacAuley D: Br J Gen Pract. 1994 Feb;44(379):83-5

Quality Scores
Thomson Message Mapping SystemSM (TMMS)
Scores based on
Science - Source Score
Quality JIF
Evidence Message Factor
Format Letter, Brief Comm, Primary Article

http://www.thomsonreuters.com/products_services/scientific1/tmms

Source: TMMS, June 2008 Atrial Fibrillation TA

Other Journal Metrics

Journal Citation Reports

Category data view

Similar statistics are provided for the

overall category, this provides
benchmark statistics for similar journals.
As with the journals, the details of the
calculation are provided for each metric

Key Citation Statistics and

additional valuable detail.

Explore relationships with

other journals through
Cited and Citing data.

Other Journal Metrics

The Eigenfactor
Eigenfactor.org is a non-commercial
academic research project sponsored by
the Bergstrom lab in the Department of
Biology at the University of Washington.
Goal: to develop novel methods for
evaluating the influence of scholarly
periodicals and for mapping the structure of
academic research

The Eigenfactor

Ranks journals much as Google ranks

websites.

Measures journal price as well as citation

influence

Contains 100K+ reference items

Adjusts for citation differences across

disciplines

Uses 5-year citation data

Allows for Better Comparisons

Across Research Areas

http://www.eigenfactor.org/whyeigenfactor.htm

Eigenfactor and JCR

With EF the review journals dont appear at the top
of the ranking the way they do with the JIF
(possible strength)
EF is a recursive formula that takes into account
the prestige of the journals that cite your journal.
Sometimes a relatively obscure journal can be
elevated if it gets cited by Science and Nature
EF is based on the JCR cited-citing matrix
EF uses JCR citable item counts
The algorithm similar to Googles page rank
Does EF magnifies the Matthew effect? (ie, the
rich get richer)

Journal Price

http://www.eigenfactor.org/whyeigenfactor.htm

Comparative Class Analysis

http://www.eigenfactor.org/whyeigenfactor.htm

Level of Discourse within a

Particular Journal

Conclusions
Journal selection is important with respect to how
readers perceive published information
Journal selection criteria are subject to
interpretation
No single metric is capable of identifying the right
journal for a submission