The Impact Factor and self citation trend of German journals indexed in the JCR (2000 - 2005)

Abstract

A total number of 432 German journals in 2000 and 427 journals in 2005 listed in the Science Edition of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) were analysed. The study showed that the proportion of German journals entering material to the JCR data bank in 2005 counted 4%. From a total number of 6,088 journals in the JCR, 427 (7%) were published in Germany. The 6,088 journals in the JCR produced 847,114 articles, 50,276 (6%) appeared in the German journals. Of the 22,353,992 citations in 2005, 861,190 (4%) came from German journals. Analysis of data showed that there is a correlation between total-citation and Impact Factors of German journals indexed in the JCR. 32.9% of all total-citation by German journals in the JCR in 2005 belong to the 7% of journals with IF 3, and 67.1% of total-citation belong to 93% of journals with IF 3. From a total number of 433 German journals in 2000 indexed in the JCR, 91% of all population has self-citation rate from 1% to 79%, and from all 427 German journals 96% of all population in 2005 has self-citation rate from 1% to 72%. The study further showed that the self-citation rates of all German journals in 2000 as well as in 2005 stayed at 12%. The number of total citation and self-citation in 2005 with compare to the same set of journals in 2000 has respectively 26.78% and 22.45% increased. The mean value of all German journals IFs in 2005 showed 0.31 increase with compare to the mean value of all German journals IFs in the year 2000.