Comparison among journal impact factor, SCimago journal rank indicator, eigenfactor score and h5-index of environmental engineering journals

Abstract

This paper reflects analyses the leading and reputable journal research quality indicators accepted by scientific and academic communities for evaluation and judgment of scientific journals in the field of environmental engineering. Selected research assessment measures are expected to highlight similarities within each indicator, indicate differences among alternative indicators, capture similar performance characteristics of highly cited journals, and show degree and type of correlations with indicators, and hence add significant journals informational values. Bibliometric indicators that are used to appraise quality ranking for journals use algorithms that are complex and other databases.The major objective of this research work is to assess presently applied (2015) quality indices of journal scientific impact with emphasis on Journal Impact Factor (JIF), Eigenfactor Score (ES), and SCImago Journal Rank indicator (SJR). Particular environmental engineering journals were chosen from their category within Web of Science. The 2015 JIFs and ESs are obtained from Journal Citation Report and the SJR from the SCImago Journal and country rank website.Chosen journals were listed and their associated information retrieved from their sites. Attempts were rendered to apply JIF, SJR and ES quality indexes for ranking and judging quality of environmental engineering journals. All journals were assessed in virtue of their JIF, ES and SJR. Likewise, correlations between indices were drawn through employment of Pearson’s and Spearman’s statistical correlations of the SPSS software. All journals examined have the premier standard of quality as being indexed in distinct and honored databases such as: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. JIF ranged between 8.328 and 0.129; ES varied between 0.05722 to as low as 0.00001, JSR oscillated between 2.322 and 0.127 and H5 swung between 121 to 5. A high Pearson’s (r) statistical correlation occurred between JIF and both H5 and SJR indicators for journals in this category (r = 0.859 and r = 0.853, respectively), while it is rather lower between JIF and ES values (r = 0.629). With respect to Spearsman’s rho statistical correlation a high correlation appeared between JIF and each of H5 and SJR indicators for journals in Environmental engineering (coefficient value of 0.867 and 0.862, respectively) and a nearly similar correlation between JIF and ES rankings (coefficient value = 0.851)