Editorial: Continuous Improvement of JTAER through Monitoring Performance Indicators

Abstract

An important mission of JTAER is to maintain the high quality of the journal. This mission can be implemented into the following three objectives: (i) continuously improve the quality of the papers published in the journal, (ii) promote the quality of the review process, and (iii) increase the readership of the journal. While the editors and members of the editorial board actively worked with authors and potential authors toward these three objectives, we also monitored the performance indicators that measure the achievement of these objectives. In this issue, we would like to share with readers of the journal our progress seen through these indicators. Performance Indicators The quality of the papers is often reflected in the number of citations of that the papers received. This indicator shows in many aspects how the papers were used in a wider research community. First, the papers must be of good quality to be regarded as worthy of citation. The papers also must be relevant to the current trends of research interest to be cited in support of current topics. The papers also must be widely read to gain notice for citation of relevancy, or to initiate new research interest that credits this initiation through the citation of originality. We have currently obtained the data of journal citations from the Scopus database (see Figure 1), and we have observed that our journal has been cited in many different journals that are indexed in both the ISI Thomson Reuters and Scopus databases, and in other journals that are only indexed in the Scopus database. The citation has grown explosively in the first two years, as expected for a new journal that is good, and leveled offto a healthy growth typically expected of a journal that continuously maintains high standard and high quality for its papers. As we have stated in previous editorial notes, our strategy to reach the research community has been to have the inclusion of the Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research in those abstract databases and website libraries that are important to the electronic commerce discipline from both business and technological perspectives. From 2008, JTAER was included in the SCOPUS database, and our performance as monitored from this database is included in Table 1. The SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper) indicator measures the contextual impact that a paper has on the field based on its being cited. The indicator is normalized to the same scale so that it can be compared to other journals of different research subjects. Our SNIP performance grew about 100% the first year and has been steadied afterward. Similarly, the SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) indicator grew about 25% the first year and has been steadied afterward. The SJR indicator measures the prestige of a journal, and differentiates the citation of a paper by the ranking of the journal that cited it. One important aspect of establishing high standard and good quality for the papers is the quality of the review process. Being timely is a quantitative indicator used by many journals to measure the performance of the reviewing process. The fast turnaround time of a reviewing cycle often attracts more submissions from authors. An increase in submission implies better quality of the papers through more competition in a larger pool of available papers for a limited number of slots that the journal offers. We will set up the monitoring of this indicator as part of our selfevaluation in an honest attempt to improve other aspects of the journal. A good journal can also be indicated by the size of its readership. While the readership can be considered the measurement of popularity, the popularity is an indirect indication that the journal is providing good articles that are relevant to the readers. JTAER is an electronic journal that offers research articles from our website, and therefore it is natural for us to monitor the number of hits that the website received to measure the popularity of the journal, which in turn can give us an indication of the size of the readership. …