Of course, everyone associated with a journal is pleased to see a journal included in Web of Science. But how seriously should we take this?
ISI has recently, for the first time, added a number of journals that are not published in English. The selection of those new journals has not been a transparent process, but seems to have been a result of continual criticism of Web of Science's narrow Anglo-American coverage, as well as pressure from subscribers such as the Spanish government which was paying millions of euros each year for a national subscription on behalf of all the universities in the country - and began to notice that there were few Spanish authors in the rankings.
At the same time, ISI quietly withdrew journals that have been in their Master List for years, again apparently without explaining how they no longer conform to whatever criteria exist. Data from journals that have been pulled from the Master List even seem to have been deleted from earlier online issues of JCR, so it's not possible to easily compare their data with those journals that continue to be listed or with data from the newly included titles and assess the validity of these decisions.
Decisions about the inclusion and exclusion of journals by Web of Science are based on criteria that are not described in objective terms, and made solely by Thomson Reuter's editors, but their qualifications for judging journals are not particularly clear. They are noticeably anonymous! So, how do we know whether they are better equipped to judge the quality of a journal than the subject experts who comprise its editorial board or who review its papers? How can we be sure that that their decisions are transparent and fair, and not simply driven by commercial considerations that limit the number of titles to be covered?
Just how credible is this system?
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathryn King
Sent: 11 April 2011 10:49
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Subject: [lis-e-resources] Evidence & Policy journal now accepted in ISI Social Sciences Citation Index
The Policy Press is pleased to announce that the journal Evidence & Policy
has been accepted by Thomson Reuters into the ISI Social Sciences Citation
Index beginning with Volume 6, 2010. Evidence & Policy is now in its seventh
volume and is dedicated to comprehensive and critical assessment of the
relationship between research evidence and the concerns of policy makers and
practitioners, as well as researchers. This important move demonstrates the
significant contribution Evidence & Policy is making to the field.
For further information about a free trial or subscription, contact The
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Now available in paperback:
INJUSTICE
Why social inequality persists
Danny Dorling
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Journal article of the month
<http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/jpsj/2011/00000019/00000001/art00
007> 'The distributional consequences of the 2010 Spending Review' by Tim
Horton and Howard Reed, from The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice
(Volume 19, Number 1) is free for the month of April.
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