Performance analysis of Civil Engineering Journals based on the Web of Science® database

Abstract

The presented study analyses the development and performance measures of research journals in the field of civil engineering. As the paper was prepared on the occasion of the 20th anniversary since the Journal of Civil Engineering and Management (JCEM) was founded, it presents detailed description of its evolution. This journal is currently ranked in the 12th position worldwide, based on the values of Impact Factors (IF) published by the Thomson Reuter's Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports. JCEM entered the first quartile (Q1) of its peer journals based on its worldwide impact in “Engineering, Civil” category of the ISI Web of Science. However, it has been argued that the IF value is not the sole and possibly not the best measure of journal quality. A number of metrics as well as bibliometric indicators have been developed to measure the impact of scholarly journals. The paper proposes an integrated multiple criteria approach for ranking journals. The essence of the approach lies in the ability to rank journals considering several criteria simultaneously and applying Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods to derive the rankings. Journals from the Q1 quartile of the “Engineering, Civil” category of the Web of Science were analyzed based on seven indicators derived from Journal Citation Reports while applying Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method. Integrated rankings with the use of this method were then compared with journal rankings based on their ISI Impact Factor values.