Towards appropriate indicators of journal impact

This paper reviews a range of studies conducted by the authors on indicators reflecting scholarly journal impact. A critical examination of the journal impact data in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) has shown that the JCR impact factor is inaccurate and biased towards journals revealing a rapid maturing or decline in impact. In addition, it was found that the JCR cited half life is an inappropriate measure of decline of journal impact. More appropriate impact measures of scholarly journals are proposed. A new classification system is explored, describing both maturing and decline of journal impact as measured through citations. Suggestions for future research are made, analysing in more detail the distribution of citations among papers in a journal.