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Distribution of changes in impact factors over time

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Abstract

I studied the distribution of changes in journal impact factors (JIF) between 1998 and 2007 according to an empirical beta law with two exponents. Changes in JIFs (CJIF) were calculated as the quotient obtained by dividing the JIF for a given year by the JIF for the preceding year. The CJIFs showed good fit to a beta function with two exponents. In addition, I studied the distribution of the changes in segments of the CJIF rank order. The distributions, which were similar from year to year, could be fitted to a Lorentzian function. The methods used here can be useful to understand the changes in JIFs using relatively simple functions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Dirección General de Investigación) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/FEDER, project SEJ2007-66236/SOCI). I thank K. Shashok for improving the use of English in the manuscript and for suggestions about the content, professors Miramontes, Lavalette y Popescu for their suggestions and for sending me interesting papers and resources and two anonymous referees for their advice.

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  1. Departamento de Física, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Miguel Campanario

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  1. Juan Miguel Campanario
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Correspondence to Juan Miguel Campanario.

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Campanario, J.M. Distribution of changes in impact factors over time. Scientometrics 84, 35–42 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0094-y

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