Comparison among Journal Quality Indicators of Sports Science Journals

Abstract

This article evaluates the quality indices of sports science journals with emphasis on Journal Impact Factor (JIF, SCImago Journal Rank indicator (SJR), Eigen factor Score (ES) and H-index. The 2015 JIFs and ESs are obtained from Journal Citation Report® (JCR) through WoS and the SJR from the SCImago Journal and country rank website. Efforts were made to relate JIF, SJR, ES and H5 quality indices for ranking and rating quality of sports science journals. Similarly, correlations between indices were depicted by using SPSS Pearson's and Spearman's statistical correlations. Considered sports science journals have the leading standard of quality as being indexed in marked and esteemed databases such as: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. JIF ranged between 0.163 to 6.724; ES varied between 0.0002 to 0.0416, JSR oscillated between 0.134 to 3.333 and H5 ranged between 4 to 81. A high Pearson's (r) statistical correlation occurred between JIF and SJR indicators for journals in this category (r = 0.892) and between JIF and H5 indices (r = 0.769), while it is rather moderate between JIF and ES values (r = 0.690). Spearsman's rho statistical correlation indicated an acceptable and identical correlation appeared between JIF and SJR indicators, JIF and ES rankings and between JIF and H5 for journals in Sports science (coefficient value = 0.905, 0.845 and 0.818, respectively).