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Olympian Impact Factors: Top Journals in Exercise and Sports Science and Medicine for 2008

Will G Hopkins

Sportscience 12, 22-24, 2008 (sportsci.org/2008/wghif.htm)
Sport and Recreation, AUT University, Auckland 0627, New Zealand.  Email.  Reviewer: Frank I Katch, retired, Santa Barbara, California
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This year’s gold, silver, and bronze for journals specializing in sport and exercise, as judged by their impact factor (citations in 2007 per article published in 2005 and 2006), go to Sports Medicine (3.6), American Journal of Sports Medicine (3.4) and Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (3.0). Other finalists were Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (2.9), British Journal of Sports Medicine (2.5), Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (2.3), Clinics in Sports Medicine (1.7, also the prize for the most improved), Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (1.7), Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine (1.6), International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism (1.5), International Journal of Sports Medicine (1.5), Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (1.5), Exercise and Immunology Reviews (1.4), Journal of Athletic Training (1.4), Journal of Sports Sciences (1.4), Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (1.4), Human Movement Science (1.3), Journal of Aging and Physical Activity (1.3), Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (1.3), Psychology of Sport and Exercise (1.2), Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (1.1), and Quest (1.0).  Other journals had impact factors <1.0.  International Sportmed Journal (0.3) earned the prize for novice competitor. Other citation statistics (pagerank, cited half life, immediacy index) are of little use for ranking journals in our field.  KEYWORDS: academic, citation, pagerank, publication, research. 

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Partly because researchers find journal impact factors interesting, partly because no other trustworthy objective measure of journal importance currently exists, and partly because I am always short of copy for Sportscience, I am pleased to present once again the annual list of impact factors for journals in our disciplines. The impact factor represents the number of citations that a journal’s average recent (2005-2006) article received in all 2007 journal articles. The factors are compiled by Thomson Scientific and published as Journal Citation Reports each year around June-July. Access to the reports is possible only via an institutional subscription. Consult last year’s summary and the links there to earlier summaries for more information on the impact factor.

Table 1 shows the table of impact factors, with journals sorted alphabetically and movements in the factor color coded. To comply with Thomson Scientific’s policy of acceptable use, I am allowed to show only this year’s factors, and I have had to show some of the lower impact factors as inequalities. The ranking of the journals specializing in sport or exercise is shown in the Abstract of this article, whereas the table includes journals of a more generic nature that accept articles on some aspect of exercise or sport science or medicine. Some of these journals, for example those devoted to applied physiology, have higher impact factors that reflect the greater level of activity in those disciplines. For the same reason, journals with a specific focus, such as sport history, have low impact factors that do not necessarily reflect article quality.

Dissatisfaction with this and other aspects of the impact factor has led to a proposal for ranking journals based on the pagerank algorithm Google uses to rank hits. Pagerank is essentially a measure of how many citations a journal receives from journals that receive higher rates of citation. As such, it is described as a measure of prestige. (For more, see an article in Wikipedia.) Alas, the measure does not seem to be adjusted in any way for journal size, so journals with more articles receive more citations: prestige, it seems, is all about being big. The Journal of Biological Chemistry is huge (37,920 pages last year), which probably explains why only Nature beat it to the top of the pagerank list. Nature is much smaller (~6500 pages last year) but gets far more citations per article (impact factor 29 vs JBC’s 5.6).  The pagerank divided by the annual number of articles would be a more sensible measure of prestige.

This year I made the effort to understand other citation statistics featured in the Journal Citation Reports. The cited half-life is described as “the median age of the articles cited in the JCR year… A higher or lower cited half-life does not imply any particular value for a journal.” I skimmed values of this statistic for the sport science journals, and I have to agree there is no obvious useful information in this statistic for researchers. The immediacy index refers to “the average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published… For comparing journals specializing in cutting-edge research, the immediacy index can provide a useful perspective.” Perhaps, but I would argue not for journals in exercise and sport science.

 

Table 1: Impact factors (citations per paper) for sport and exercise science journals based on papers published in 2005 and 2006 that were cited in 2007.  "<1.0" implies a value between 0.1 and 1.0.  A journal without an impact factor is not in Thomson Scientific's science or social sciences databases, either because the journal is too new or the factor is too low.  Colors indicate changes in impact factor since last year.

 

ł70%

 

30-69%

 

10-29%

 

↨ 0-9%

 

Ż 10-60%

 

<0.1

ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal

2.6

Acta Physiologica Scandinavica

<1.0

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly

 

American Journal of Medicine and Sports

1.6

American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

4.1

American Journal of Physiology - Endo & Metab

4.0

American Journal of Physiology - Heart & Circ

3.4

American Journal of Sports Medicine

<1.0

Applied Ergonomics

1.0

Applied Physiology Nutrition & Metabolism (was Can J Appl Physiol)

<1.0

Applied Psychological Measurement

1.3

Applied Psychology-International Review

1.8

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

<1.0

Athletic Therapy Today

1.9

Australian Journal of Physiotherapy

0.8

Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine

1.0

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers

<0.1

Biology of Sport

2.5

British Journal of Sports Medicine

1.3

Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology (now Appl Physiol Nutr Metab)

1.6

Clinical Biomechanics

1.6

Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine

2.9

Clinical Nutrition

1.7

Clinics in Sports Medicine

 

Current Sports Medicine Reports

<1.0

Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin

 

Electromyography and Motor Control

1.5

Ergonomics

1.8

European Journal of Applied Physiology

2.3

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

 

European Journal of Sport Science

 

European Review of Aging and Physical Activity

 

European Sports History Review

1.4

Exercise and Immunology Reviews

3.0

Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews

2.3

Gait and Posture

1.8

High Altitude Medicine and Biology

1.3

Human Movement Science

5.2

International Journal of Epidemiology

 

International Journal of History of Sport

 

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport

1.5

International J of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism

0.5

International Journal of Sport Psychology

1.5

International Journal of Sports Medicine

 

International J of Sports Physiology & Performance

 

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

0.3

International Sportmed Journal

 

International Sports Journal

<1.0

Isokinetics and Exercise Science

<0.1

Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sport

1.3

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity

 

Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

1.1

Journal of Applied Biomechanics

3.6

Journal of Applied Physiology

3.0

Journal of Applied Psychology

1.3

Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

1.4

Journal of Athletic Training

2.9

Journal of Biomechanics

 

Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies

1.2

Journal of Clinical Psychology

 

Journal of Comparative Physical Education & Sport

1.3

Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology

3.0

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

 

Journal of Exercise Physiology Online

<0.1

Journal of Human Movement Studies

 

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

<1.0

Journal of Leisure Research

1.3

Journal of Motor Behaviour

3.8

Journal of Nutrition

2.1

Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine

1.5

Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy

<1.0

Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

 

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance

4.6

Journal of Physiology

1.1

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

1.0

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

1.7

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

<1.0

Journal of Sport and Social Issues

 

Journal of Sport Behavior

 

Journal of Sport History

<1.0

Journal of Sport Management

<1.0

Journal of Sport Rehabilitation

 

Journal of Sports Chiropractic and Rehabilitation

<1.0

Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness

<1.0

Journal of Sports Science and Medicine

1.4

Journal of Sports Sciences

 

Journal of Sports Traumatology

1.4

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

 

Journal of Swimming Research

<1.0

Journal of Teaching in Physical Education

<1.0

Leisure Sciences

 

Leisure Studies

 

Measurement in Physical Education & Exercise Science

<0.1

Medicina dello Sport

2.9

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

 

Medicine and Sport Science

1.3

Motor Control

<1.0

Pediatric Exercise Science

 

Pediatric Physical Therapy

<1.0

Perceptual and Motor Skills

 

Physical Educator

2.2

Physical Therapy

<1.0

Physical Therapy in Sport

<1.0

Physician and Sportsmedicine

???

Physikalische Medizin Rehabilitationsmedizin Kuror.

1.2

Psychology of Sport and Exercise

1.0

Quest

 

Research in Sports Med (was Sports Med Train Rehab)

0.9

Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport

2.3

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports

<1.0

Science and Sports

<1.0

Sociology of Sport Journal

 

Sport History Review

<1.0

Sport, Education, and Society

<1.0

(The) Sport Psychologist

 

Sports Biomechanics

 

Sports Exercise and Injury

3.6

Sports Medicine

<1.0

Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review

 

Sports Medicine Standards & Malpractice Reporter

<1.0

Sportverletzung-Sportschaden

 

Strength and Conditioning

<1.0

Strength and Conditioning Journal

 

Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal

Thomson Scientific, Inc. is the publisher and copyright owner of the Journal Citation Reports®.
Impact Factors listed in this article are used with the express permission of Thomson Scientific.

Published July 2008

©2008