Spanish researchers create a database of scientific journals as an alternative to Thomson Scientific products

The ranking, headed by the UGR, presents data for countries and journals and can be filtered according to large knowledge areas (27), thematic categories (295), country/journal and years (since 1996 to 2006). An additional combination permits to arrange the ranking according to different indicators: SJR, citations per document, h-index, journals titles, documents, quotable documents and total of citations; with the possibility of establishing a minimum level for all of them. SJR is based on the ‘Page Rank’ algorithm to weight citations according to those received by the citing publication.

The SCImago Group has published the new “SCImago journal & Country rank: A new site, two new rankings” in the November – December issue 2007 (vol16, n. 6) of the journal “The Information Professional”, as well as the open access article, which can be gratuitously downloaded in pdf and html on: http://elprofesionaldelainformacion.metapress.com

Researchers and academic and institutional authorities must support this initiative now with specific facts. For further suggestions or comments, those interested should get in touch with the authors by e-mail: scimago@ugr.es

SCImago Research Group

The SCImago Group, directed by Professor Félix de Moya Anegón (University of Granada), is composed of researchers of the universities Carlos III and Alcalá of Madrid, of Extremadura and of Granada. They have worked on the use of scientometric indicators as tools that permit to place a country, an institution, a thematic area or a researcher in the world context of scientific production. They have carried out the project “Science Atlas”, in which the Group has focused its work since 1998.

Thomson Scientific ISI

The Institute for Scientific Information -ISI offers the scientific community a citation database including thousands of journals -the Science Citation Index (SCI). The database offers the possibility of identifying the most frequently cited articles, as well as the source of the citation. The ISI allows to know, in addition, the impact of each indexed scientific journal and, therefore, their valuation among the scientific community.

All over the world, the bibliometric indicators of the ISI have been used to analyse the scientific production and to direct decision taking in scientific and technological public policies.