Abstract
The Consumption Factor has been proposed as a new measure of the significance/quality of scientific journals. The scientometric properties of this measure and its relationship to other commonly used measures of journal significance were examined. The results indicate a high correlation between the two component measures used to construct the Consumption Factor and a weak relationship between the Consumption Factor and other measures traditionally used to assess journal significance. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of the need for multiple measures of the significance of scientific journals.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
K. E. CLARK,America's Psychologists: A Survey of a Growing Profession, American Psychological Association, Washington, D. C., 1957.
J. R. COLE, S. COLE, Scientific Output and Recognition: A Study in the Operation of the Reward System in Science,American Sociological Review, 32 (1967) 377–390.
S. M. LAWANI, Citation Analysis and the Quality of Scientific Productivity,Bioscience, 27 (1977) 26–31.
C. R. MYERS, Journal Citations and Scientific Eminence in Contemporary Psychology,American Psychologist, 25 (1970) 1041–1048.
A. E. BAYER, J. K. FOLGER, Some Correlates of a Citation Measure of Productivity in Science,Sociology of Education, 39 (1966) 381–390.
W. O. HAGSTROM, Inputs, Outputs, and the Prestige of University Science Departments,Sociology of Education, 44 (1971) 375–397.
R. C. ANDERSON, F. NARIN, P. McALLISTER, Publication Ratings Versus Peer Ratings of Universities,Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 29 (1978) 91–103.
D. L. SCHAEFFER, I. M. SULYMA, Citation Rates and the Quality of Canadian Psychology Departments,Canadian Psychological Review, 20 (1979) 22–37.
W. C. BUSH, P. W. HAMELMAN, R. J. STAAF, A Quality Index for Economic Journals,Review of Economics and Statistics, 56 (1974) 123–125.
T. ROCHE, D. L. SMITH, Frequency of Citations as Criterion for the Rankings of Departments, Journals, and Individuals,Sociological Inquiry, 48 (1978) 49–57.
M. J. WHITE, K. G. WHITE, Citation Analysis of Psychology Journals,American Psychologist, 32 (1977) 301–305.
V. I. YANOVSKY, Citation Analysis Significance of Scientific Journals,Scientometrics, 3 (1981) 223–233.
E. GARFIELD, M. V. MALIN, H. SMALL, Citation Data as Science Indicators, in Y. ELKANA, J. LEDERBERG, R. K. MERTON, A. THACKRAY, H. ZUCKERMAN Eds.,Toward a Metric of Science: The Advent of Science Indicators, Wiley, New York, 1978.
D. KOULACK, H. J. KESELMAN, Ratings of Psychology Journals by Members of the American Psychological Association,American Psychologist, 30 (1975) 1049–1053.
R. G. HAWKINS, L. S. RITTER, I. WALTER, What Economists Think of their Journals,Journal of Political Economy, 81 (1973), 1017–1032.
T. S. LUCE, D. M. JOHNSON, Rating of Educational and Psychological Journals,Educational Researcher, 7 (1978) 8–10.
M. W. GILES, G. C., Jr. WRIGHT, Political Scientists' Evaluations of Sixty-three Journals,PS, 8 (1975) 254–256.
N. D. GLENN, American Sociologists' Evaluations of Sixty-three Journals,The American Sociologist, 6 (1971) 298–303.
S. M. LAWANI, Quality, Collaboration and Citations in Cancer Research: A Bibliometric Study. Ph. D. Dissertation, Florida State University, 1980.
D. LINDSEY,The Scientific Publication System in Social Science, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1978.
D. J. PRICE, Citation Measures of Hard Science, Soft Science, Technology, and Nonscience, in C. E. NELSON and D. K. POLLOCK Eds,Communication among Scientists and Engineers, D. C. Heath, Lexington, Mass., 1970.
E. GARFIELD,Citation Indexing: Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology, and Humanities, Wiley, New York, 1979.
R. B. CATTELL, The Scree Test for the Number of Factors,Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1 (1966) 245–276.
K. C. MACE, H. D. WARNER, Ratings of Psychology Journals,American Psychologist, 28 (1973) 184–186.
D. J. PRICE, Communication in Science: The Ends-Philosophy and Forecast, in A. REUCH and J. KNIGHT Eds,Ciba Foundation Symposium on Communication in Science: Documentation and Automation, Churchill, London, 1967.
J. W. TUKEY, Keeping Research in Contact with the Literature: Citation Indices and Beyond.Journal of Chemical Documents, 2 (1962) 34.
J. C. SMART, C. F. ELTON, Structural Characteristics and Citation Rates of Education Journals,American Educational Research Journal, 18 (1981) 399–413.
K. S. CAMERON, Measuring Organizational Effectiveness in Institutions of Higher Education,Administrative Science Quarterly, 23 (1978) 604–632.
M. J. CLARK, R. T. HARTNETT, L. J. BAIRD,Assessing Dimensions of Quality in Graduate Education, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N. J., 1976.
L. L. CUMMINGS, D. P. SCHWAB,Performance in Organizations, Scott, Foresman, Glenview, Ill., 1973.
R. M. STEERS,Organizational Effectiveness: A Behavioral View, Goodyear, Santa Monica, Cal., 1977.
E. GARFIELD, Citation Analysis as a Tool in Journal Evaluation,Science, 178 (1972) 471–479.
D. W. Jr. LIGHT, The Structure of the Academic Profession,Sociology of Education, 47 (1974) 2–28.
J. C. SMART, C. F. ELTON, Goal Orientations of Academic Departments: A Test of Biglan's Model,Journal of Applied Psychology, 60 (1975) 580–588.
A. BIGLAN, Relationship between Subject Matter Characteristics and the Structure and Output of University Departments,Journal of Applied Psychology, 57 (1973) 204–213.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smart, J.C., Elton, C.F. Consumption factor scores of psychology journals: Scientometric properties and qualitative implications. Scientometrics 4, 349–360 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02135121
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02135121