WHY INFORMATICA CANNOT BE COVERED BY THE SCI?
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INFORMATICA 2/89
Keywords: science citation index, Informática
For all of those who may riot be familiar with Science Citation Index (SCI) let us present it by giving its definition:
SCI is a large scale index to thé international scientific and technical literature. The SCI indexes over 600,000 items per year in over 3,300 scientific and technical journals (and nearly 1,400 multiauthored books). One of the unique indexing techniques used is citation indexing, i.e. alphabetical listing by author of all the references found in footnotes and bibliographies of journals covered by the SCI. The SCI is made up of four separate but related .indexes which cover the same newly published articles, but afford access to each article in different ways. These indexes are the Citation index, the Source Index, the Corporate Index and the Permuterm Subject Index. The SCI Journal Citation Reports (JCR), an additional section, provides bibliometric analysis of science journals in the ISI data base (Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, USA) and is designed as a tool for evaluating these journals. The JCR extends the use of citation analysis to examine the relationship among journals rather than among.articles and their authors. Like any other tool, the SCI JCR cannot be used indiscriminately. However, the ambition of the SCI was to. create and cover a list of high impact science journals established through their citation records. Besides their citation records science journals' found on this list must satisfy certain criteria regarding the contents, the format, the geographic origin, the language, the present coverage in the discipline and the accessability to the international scientific community.
Ivan Rozman, Maja Drev Faculty of Engineering, Maribor
If we look up the list of SCI source journals we find out that Informática is not included. Why? In order to get an answer we submitted a sample issue of Informática, vol, 12, no.2,1988, for evaluation and possible coverage by the SCI to a coverage specialist at the ISI. Here are the results, their interpretation and our reflections in abridged form:
Informática has not been accepted for coverage by the SCI because the field it covers is already strongly represented with journals which have very high citation records. The coverage specialist at the ISI was kind enough to include some unofficial suggestions to increase the citation record of Informática and to point out some of its deficiencies.
If we wish to have some sort of presence in the citation indexes it is important to have as unique a name as possible for a journal. There are four journals already in publication with the title Informática in Ulrich s International Periodicals Directory. This may cause confusion when, a journal is cited. It would be appropriate to change its name and call it e.g. Informática Slovenica.
As regards the format, Informática does not include a clearly stated journal frequency or author adresses which indicate both the author s institutional affiliation and country of origin, which faciliates faster communication within the scientific community. The journal's adherence to its prescribed publication schedule is also very important. References for an article should be grouped at the end of an article. The use of a standard form for complete references is encouraged. The ISO 690 or ANSI Z39:29
standards are suggested. The ISI Checklist for Journal Editors and Publishers recommends the following contents page design: columnar format, a list of titles first, followed by the authors names, and a list of page numbers at the right. In Informática it's just the opposite. Detailed recommendations for journal format are included.
As regrads the accessability in the •scientific community, there is no listing for Informática ir: any library acquisition tool, not even in Ulrich"s International Periodicals Directory! It is also disappointing to find no citations to it from the journals of the ISI databse, although Informática is in volume - 13. This can be explained in two ways: either the authors who publish in Informática are not reknown enough to publish in science journals covered by the SCI or they avoid citing articles from Informática when they publish- in international science journals because they underestimate it.
The question is how to increase the international impact of Informática and enable inclusion in the SCI source journals. Firstly, Informática should be recommended to various indexing and abstracting services. Secondly, Informática should gain some citation records. This depends mostly on the professional community that surrounds it. It would be advisable - to recommend Informática and some articles in it to colleagues within the country and elsewhere. This may help Informática to be cited in journals of wider reknown. Additional attention should be paid to the format.
Sustained efforts in accordance with the suggested guidelines should upgrade Informática and make it accessible in the international scientific community.
Attention to the Readers of Informática
Readers of Informática are kindly requested to send information on their papers recently published in foreign professional (scientific, also philosophical) journals (periodicals). Such information will be regularly published within this column.
Some Recently Published Papers in Foreign Professional Periodicals
Borka Jerman- Bažič, Will the Multi-octet Standard Character Set Code Solve the World Coding Problems for Information Interchange? Computer Standards & Interfaces* 8 (1988/89) 127-136.
P. Kokol, B. Vukelič, M. Mernik, I. Rozman and V. Zumer, IMCL Language and Its Implementation on the Personal Computer. SIGSMALL/PC Notes 14 (1988) 4, 8-18 (ACM Press, New York).
L. Sluga, P. Butala, Nada Lavrač and M. Gams, An Attempt to Implement Expert Systems Techniques in CAPP. Robotics & Computer Integrated Manufacturing 4 (1988) Iß, 77-82 (Pergamon Press).
A. P. Zeleznikar, Principles of Information. Cybernetica** 31 (1988) 99-122.
A. P. Zeleznikar, Information Determinations I. Cybernetica 31 (1988) 181-213.
* Computer Standards & Interfaces is published by Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North - Holland).
** Cybernetica is published by the International Association for Cybernetics, Palais des Expositions, Place Andre Rijckmans, B.5000 Namur, Belgium.