Geophysics’ 2008 impact factor is No. 2 all time

Geophysics’ more rapid turnaround time from submission to publication in recent years is helping the journal increase its impact factor.

SEG’s peer-reviewed journal had a rating of 1.349 for 2008, the second-highest mark in the publication’s history, behind only the 1983 score of 1.461 and exceeding the previous No. 2 performance of 1.228 in 2006. The journal’s impact factor has risen steadily from 0.649 in 2001.

“The steadily increasing impact factor indicates that Geophysics is strengthening its position as the preferred journal for applied geophysics,” said Editor Kees Wapenaar.

Geophysics’ impact factor is reported in the Science Edition of Thomson Reuters’ Journal Citation Reports. The 2008 rating is calculated by taking the number of cites in 2008 to Geophysics articles published in 2006 and 2007 and dividing it by the number of articles published in the journal in 2006 and 2007.

The impact factor is watched closely in academic communities, as it is considered a measure of a journal’s role in fostering innovation.

Geophysics’ average time from submission to publication has been trimmed during the past few years from nearly two years to less than 10 months. Cites are, thus, fresher, one reason for Geophysics’ impact factor increase.

In his May 2008 President’s Page in The Leading Edge, Wapenaar offered his view that the impact factor of a specific discipline is inversely proportional to the “industrial impact” of the discipline, and that Geophysics’ modest impact factor belies the fact that it is among the world’s most important geoscience journals.

An indication of Geophysics’ enduring value is its cited half-life—the number of journal publication years going back from the current year which account for 50% of the total citations received by the cited journal during the year. In 2008, Geophysics was one of only 17 journals in its category with a cited half-life of greater than 10 years. It is No. 11 in its category in the number of total cites it received during 2008 for all publication years of the journal.

Geophysics scored 0.165 in the immediacy index rating for 2008. That is calculated by dividing the number of cites in 2008 to Geophysics articles published in 2008 by the number of articles published by the journal in 2008. The journal’s immediacy index rating is down from 0.220 for 2007 but is about average for the past decade.