"Ripe" for Change: Introducing a New Index of Publication Efficiency Stephen W. Gutkina* and Sara B. Glickstein, PhDb aPresident and bDirector of Research Operations, Rete Biomedical Communications Corp., Wyckoff, NJ, USA • IF is a measure of the “interests of other researchers in an article, but not the ABSTRACT Statistical Methods DISCUSSION article’s importance and usefulness”2 [authors’ italics] or the overall value of the RESULTS ObjectiveDISCLOSURES: To develop an index of "publication efficiency" of biomedical journals. journal to the field. It is determined mainly by researchers who cite journal • Each component of the RIPE (i.e. quantities in the numerator) was ranked using Microsoft Excel. Research design and methods: Using data available from www.pubshub.com articles, not by the readers of these journals (who may more likely be • Microsoft Excel was also used to generate: and other sources, we determined the Rete Index of Publication Efficiency (RIPE) practitioners than researchers). Scatter plots of RIPE scores (on ordinate) as functions of IF, EGF, and circulation (on abscissa) as: • For these and other reasons, IF alone is not a comprehensive surrogate for the Trend lines for the above plots by linear regression RIPE = ι (Influence) x ρ (Reach) overall quality or value of a journal. According to one commentator, “a Pearson r correlation coefficients for the above composite, multidimensional rubric of journal value is needed.”5 Tsub→pub Equations describing trend lines in the form of y = mx + b Where: • We introduce a novel, multifactorial value index of “publication efficiency” to r2 values • ι (iota; “Influence”) is computed as the sum of ascending rank orders (higher inform decisions by researchers/authors and publication planners. values = higher ranks) within specialty of: RESULTS Eigenfactor™ (EGF™); OBJECTIVE Impact Factor (IF); and Table 1. Top 20 IM Journals by RIPE and IF Table 3. Top 20 Oncology Journals by RIPE and IF Affiliation score (the number of sponsoring/affiliated • This pilot analysis was conducted to develop a new value index of the professional societies). "publication efficiency" of biomedical journals: the Rete Index of Publication Efficiency (RIPE). •ρ (rho; “Reach”) is the ascending rank order of the number of readers (print or electronic circulation, whichever is higher); and METHODS •Timesub→pub is the average time from manuscript submission to print publication (days), assuming 28 days to incorporate peer review and review page Data Extraction proofs. The method assigns measures of journal quality ("influence" and "reach") • Using www.pubshub.com, we identified journals in the following categories to the numerator, and a measure of production time to the denominator, in order according to Science Citation Index (SCI) Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®) to address the question "Where will papers reach the most and highest-quality categories: readers in the shortest period?" General and Internal Medicine (IM; n = 86 journals) Results: Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (n = 93) Journal RIPE IF Oncology (n = 146). • Only journals with available data on the following parameters were included in JAMA 132.61 30.01 the analysis: IF = impact factor; IM = internal medicine; JAMA = Journal of the American Medical Association; JCR® = IF Journal Citation Reports®; NA = not available or not applicable (the journal’s highest-ranking JCR category British Medical Journal 113.90 13.66 was not IM); QJM = Quarterly Journal of Medicine; RIPE = Rete Index of Publication Efficiency. Eigenfactor™ (EGF™) is a rating of the overall importance of a journal (i.e. the For abbreviations, see Table 1. Annals of Internal 103.48 16.73 frequency of accessing content by an “average researcher”). It was developed Medicine by Drs. Jevin D. West and Carl T. Bergstrom at the Bergstrom Lab, Department Mayo Clinic Proceedings 68.23 5.71 of Biology, University of Washington (www.eigenfactor.org).6,7 Table 2. Top 20 Cardiology Journals by RIPE and IF Lancet 63.13 33.63 Circulation (electronic or print, whichever was higher) Average time from submission to print publication (days) CONCLUSIONS IF = impact factor; JAMA = Journal of the American Medical Association; RIPE = Rete Index of Number of affiliated professional societies (affiliation score). Publication Efficiency . • After imposing the above limits, we arrived at the following numbers of journals Conclusions: Certain journals with lower IF values exhibit higher publication to compute RIPE: efficiencies because of greater influence or reach, or lower production time. General and IM (n = 79 eligible journals) Further research is warranted to validate these data and determine whether a Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (Cardiology; n = 70) higher sum of RIPE values across a publication plan is associated with other key metrics (e.g. return on investment). Oncology (n = 113). Equation to Calculate RIPE BACKGROUND RIPE = ι (Influence) x ρ (Reach) • The Thomson Reuters/Institute for Scientific Information®(ISI®) impact factor (IF) Tsub→pub 1 “reflects the ability of journals and editors to attract the best papers,” and Where: REFERENCES assists librarians in determining resource allocations (among other functions). • ι (iota; “Influence”) was computed as the sum of ascending ranks (higher • However, IF has “limited explanatory power”2 as a bibliometric index. values = higher ranks) of the following for each journal: 1. Garfield E. How can impact factors be improved? Br Med J. EGF 1996;313:411−3. • IF is potentially subject to biases and limitations,2− 5 including IF 2. Dong P, Loh M, Mondry A. The “impact factor” revisited. Biomedical *Time from submission to online publication for these journals. ATVB, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Preferential publication of longer articles and review papers, which are more Affiliation score Vascular Biology; JACC = Journal of the American College of Cardiology. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg = Journal Digital Libraries. 2005;2:7. of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. For other abbreviations, see Table 1. likely to be cited than shorter, original research papers 3. Saha S. Impact factor: a valid measure of journal quality? J Med Libr Self-citation •ρ (rho; “Reach”) was computed as the ascending rank of the number of Assoc. 2003;9:42−6. readers of each journal (electronic or print, whichever was higher). 4. Whitehouse GH. Citation rates and impact factors: should they matter? Uncorrected differences in journal citation “half-lives” and distinctions • Some journals with higher IF ranks exhibited lower RIPE ranks (and vice versa). Br J Radiol. 2001;74:1−3. between fields in referencing behaviors • The range of RIPE scores exceeded that of IF values. 5. Coleman A. Assessing the value of a journal beyond the impact factor. J Limited time frames (previous 2 years) to compute IF •Timesub→pub was computed as the average time from manuscript submission • The highest RIPE scores among the top 20 were in oncology, followed by IM and cardiology. to print publication (days), including a total of 28 days to incorporate peer • Correlations (Pearson r values) between RIPE and: Amer Soc Information Science Technology. 2007;58:1148−61. USA− and English-language−centeredness of medical journals review and review/return page proofs. –IF ranged from 0.3356 (Oncology) to 0.7069 (IM) 6. Bergstrom CT. Eigenfactor: measuring the value and prestige of scholarly Citations of invalid (e.g. retracted) articles –EGF ranged from 0.4806 (Oncology) to 0.6176 (IM) journals. College & Res Libraries News 2007;68(5). • RIPE assigns measures of journal quality ("influence" and "reach") to the –Circulation ranged from 0.2871 (Oncology) to 0.8338 (IM) Inclusion of cited communications in the numerator that are not included in numerator and a measure of production time to the denominator. 7. Rousseau R and the Stimulate 8 Group. On the relation between the • Corresponding r2 values ranged from: the denominator of IF. Wos impact factor, the Eigenfactor, the SCImago Journal Rank, the • RIPE was developed to help researchers and publication planners to answer the • 0.1126 (Oncology) to 0.4997 (IM) for IF •Perhaps most importantly, the object of interest to many researchers and Article Influence Score and the journal h-index. E-LIS; E-Prints in Library question "Where will my paper(s) reach the most, and the highest-quality, • 0.2309 (Oncology) to 0.3815 (IM) for EGF publication planners is the quality of an entire journal. As an index of quality, IF and Information Science. 2009. readers (including other researchers likely to cite my work) in the shortest • 0.0824 (Oncology) to 0.6953 (IM) for circulation is skewed, with a small proportion of articles accounting for a large majority of interval after submission?" citations. • Most raw (i.e. unranked) values for IF were ≤ 10; EGF values ≤ 0.10; and circulations ≤ 10,000. *Presenting author: 191 Godwin Ave. Suite 1, The Grace Building, Wyckoff, NJ 07481 USA. Disclosures: Neither of the authors has relevant financial relationships to disclose. They have coauthored, or provided research and editorial support in the development and publication of, articles in Tel: 201 891 8205; E-mail: [email protected]. Presented at the 8th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals, Baltimore, MD, April 23−25, 2012. many of the journals listed. Rete Com maintains a subscription to www.pubshub.com (Complete Healthcare Communications Inc., Chadds Ford, PA), from which it obtained most raw data. .