The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology’s 2015 Ranking among Cardiovascular System Journals

Abstract

Scientific medical publishers in Turkey and around the world have different expectations for the month of June. These expectations are a concern firstly for the editor, then for the publishing team. Except for last year, Thomsown Reuters’ InCites Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is published in mid-June. This report includes the total number of citations of journals, the journal impact factor (IF) and other assessments. A universally accepted or indisputable method for scientific ranking of journals has yet to be found. Along with the journal impact factor, JCR also publishes other assessments to be considered in ranking. Actually, we will only be able to understand in many years, how a scientific journal, particularly biological and medical publications will eventually serve the public. The best evidence for this is that several times the Nobel Prize is only able to be recognized many years after a scientist has died. Thus, it is important to account for the impact factor (IF) over years. The higher the IF value of scientific journals, the more they are appreciated. As a result, more publications are submitted for ranking, articles are qualified as more scientific than others are cited, and consequently their IF value increases. Although this cycle is abused in several ways, it is unavoidably valid until a better solution is found. IF value also influences the social and scientific lives of scientists. Particularly in the recent advancements and assignments in Turkey, it is taken into consideration by officials and even recognized as threshold. Many countries and publishing institutions try to resolve this issue with imitated methods, and they almost want to delude the researchers. Naturally, there is competition in the scientific world, too, but this competition should remain within the boundaries of honesty, and it should not be self-evident. Thomson Reuters published the 2015 report in its Journal Citation Reports (Science Citation Index) this year. In it, 124 journals were ranked under the “Selected Category Scheme: WOS” in the cardiovascular system. Although its SCI Impact Factor score (0.130) was given, no Turkish journal appeared in this section of the report, and the report ended with an IF score of 0.176. The ranking of the cardiovascular scientific journals included on this list changes every year, and these journals are able to get to the top ranks by enhancing the score of another journal in the lower ranks despite increasing their IF scores. For example, JACC was in first place with an IF score of 16.503 in the 2014 SCI-E ranking, and it maintained its position with a one point increase. While Eur Heart J Suppl (17.759) was in second place, it does not appear on the list this year. Circulation rose from fourth place to second rank with a score increasing from 14.430 to 17.047, whereas Eur Heart J. remained in third place although its score fell from 15.203 to the 15.064. Circulation Research rose from fifth place to fourth and was substituted by Nature Reviews Cardiology. The place of The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology was also changed in this ranking. While it was ranked 105th with a score of 0.927 in 2014, it made the cut by surpassing the psychological barrier of a score of 1 and made it to the top 100 cardiovascular publications by increasing its score to 1.141. It also got the highest IF score among the cardiovascular journals published in Turkey’s geographically neighboring countries in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean (excluding Revista Espanola de Cardiologia). What surprised Turkey is that its one of the important neighbors, Greece, had the Hellenic Journal of Cardiology ranked 107th. While the immediacy index of The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology in JCR was 0.435 last year, it rose to 0.828 and was promoted to 53rd place. Since The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology is an international publication, it is only compared to other international cardiology journals. On the other hand, it can be compared to other scientific journals published in Turkey. The category, “journals from countries/territories-Turkey,” listed 62 SCI-E journals this year. While The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology was in tenth place among Turkish scientific journals in the 2014 JCR report with an IF score of 0.927, this year it rose to ninth place with a 1.141 IF score. Its immediacy index also ranked first by a landslide with a score of 0.828. In this JCR report for Turkey, The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology was promoted from the fifth place to fourth in the medical journal IF ranking with a one point increase in its score. Consequently, The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology, which has been indexed in the JCR of SCI-E since 2007, is regarded as an exceptional journal that constantly increases its IF score every year without exception in spite of the changes in office staffing, associate editors, owners, publishers and editor. The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology looks forward to next June.