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The Journals World Cup 2005: Impact Factors for Sport Science

Will G Hopkins

Sportscience 10, 9-11, 2006 (sportsci.org/j2006/wghif.htm)
Sport and Recreation, AUT University, Auckland 1020, New Zealand.  Email.  Reviewer: John A Hawley,
School of Medical Sciences, RMIT University. Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia.

A journal's impact factor is the rate at which its recent articles have been cited.   The median impact factor for journals in sport science is 1.0, which is similar to that of many other biomedical disciplines. This year's medal winners for improvement in impact factor, with an increase of at least 70%, are Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine (now on 2.8), Journal of Sports Sciences (1.7), and Journal of Sport Management (0.7).  Journals showing an increase of 30-69% are High Altitude Medicine and Biology (2.0), British Journal of Sports Medicine (1.9), Australian Journal of Physiotherapy (1.5), Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy (1.4), Journal of Clinical Psychology (1.3), Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (1.1), and Clinics in Sports Medicine (1.1). About 17 journals showed an increase of 10-29%, those more closely identified with sport science being Sports Medicine (3.3), Journal of Applied Psychology (2.9), Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (2.8), Journal of Biomechanics (2.4), Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports (2.2), European Journal of Applied Physiology (1.6), Pediatric Exercise Science (1.6), Psychology of Sport and Exercise (1.3), Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (1.1), Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (1.1), Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness (0.9), and Journal of Sport and Social Issues (0.6). Well-known journals that have changed by less than 10% include Journal of Applied Physiology (3.0), Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (2.5), American Journal of Sports Medicine (2.4), and International Journal of Sports Medicine (1.4), Journals falling by more than 10% include Physical Therapy (1.7), Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (1.2), and Journal of Athletic Training (1.1).  KEYWORDS: academic, citation, publication, research. 

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Notwithstanding my previous public pronouncements about the misuse of the journal impact factor, I have been unable to resist sharing the latest ratings with you.  Once again I am obliged to publish an incomplete list, to comply with the policy of acceptable use of the organization that compiles the impact factors, Thomson Scientific. See my previous article for more information on this and other issues related to the impact factor.

This year I have presented the impact factors in a manner that highlights changes since the previous year.  Values of the impact factor range over more than two orders of magnitude, so changes are probably best expressed as percents.  (For those of you with an interest in statistical analysis, the impact factor would probably have acceptable uniformity of error after log transformation).  After calculating and examining the percent changes since last year, I decided to identify five bands of change, as shown in the Abstract and in Table 1.  Most of the changes were positive, indicating growth in our discipline, although I don't know how this growth compares with that of other disciplines.

The median value for the impact factor of journals in sport science is 1.0.  In other words, if you published a paper in the median journal in 2003 or 2004, it was cited on average only once in all journals in 2005.  When I viewed median impact factors for other disciplines at the citations site, I was somewhat surprised to learn that sport science is similar to health care, applied physics, rehabilitation, surgery, general medicine, orthopedics and zoology.  The highest median impact factors are found in the disciplines of virology (2.7) and genetics (2.6), while history and philosophy of science (0.4) and some branches of engineering (0.3) have the lowest.  A related citation statistic is the aggregate impact factor, which is the average citation rate of papers in each discipline.  The rate for sport science is 1.6, which means the average recent paper was cited 1.6 times last year.  Aggregate rates for the other disciplines ranged from 8.5 down to 0.1. The only meaningful conclusions that I can make from such data are (a) most of us don't get cited as much as we would like, (b) citation-wise, sport science is similar to many long-established and respected disciplines, and therefore (c) we needn't feel inferior to other academics.  

Update June 30, 2006: an editorial in the journal PLoS Medicine is critical of Thomson Scientific's process and product.

 

Table 1: Impact factors for sport- and exercise-science journals in 2005.  "<1.0" implies a value between 0.1 and 1.0.  A journal without an impact factor is not in Thomson Scientific's science or social sciences databases, either because the journal is too new or the factor is too low. "??" indicates a journal apparently removed from Thomson Scientific's databases this year.  Colors indicate changes in impact factor since 2004, as follows:

 

³70%   

 

↑30-69%   

 

↑10-29%    

 

↨0-9%   

 

↓10-29%   

 

<1.0

ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal

2.9

Acta Physiologica Scandinavica

<1.0

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly

 

American Journal of Medicine and Sports

1.1

American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

4.6

American Journal of Physiology - Endo & Metab

3.6

American Journal of Physiology - Heart & Circ

2.4

American Journal of Sports Medicine

<1.0

Applied Ergonomics

<1.0

Applied Psychological Measurement

<1.0

Applied Psychology-International Review

1.7

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

<1.0

Athletic Therapy Today

1.5

Australian Journal of Physiotherapy

1.0

Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine

1.1

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers

<0.1

Biology of Sport

1.9

British Journal of Sports Medicine

1.1

Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology

1.5

Clinical Biomechanics

2.8

Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine

2.3

Clinical Nutrition

1.1

Clinics in Sports Medicine

 

Current Sports Medicine Reports

<1.0

Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin

 

Electromyography and Motor Control

<1.0

Ergonomics

1.6

European Journal of Applied Physiology

2.2

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

 

European Journal of Sport Science

 

European Sports History Review

2.5

Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews

1.7

Gait and Posture

2.0

High Altitude Medicine and Biology

1.0

Human Movement Science

4.0

International Journal of Epidemiology

 

International Journal of History of Sport

 

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport

1.0

International J of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism

<1.0

International Journal of Sport Psychology

1.4

International Journal of Sports Medicine

 

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

 

International Sports Journal

<1.0

Isokinetics and Exercise Science

<0.1

Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sport

<1.0

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity

 

Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

<1.0

Journal of Applied Biomechanics

3.0

Journal of Applied Physiology

2.9

Journal of Applied Psychology

<1.0

Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

1.1

Journal of Athletic Training

2.4

Journal of Biomechanics

 

Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies

1.3

Journal of Clinical Psychology

 

Journal of Comparative Physical Education & Sport

2.2

Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology

3.0

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

 

Journal of Exercise Physiology Online

??

Journal of Human Movement Studies

 

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

<1.0

Journal of Leisure Research

1.7

Journal of Motor Behaviour

3.7

Journal of Nutrition

1.9

Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine

1.4

Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy

<1.0

Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

 

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance

4.3

Journal of Physiology

1.1

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

1.1

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

1.2

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

0.6

Journal of Sport and Social Issues

 

Journal of Sport Behavior

??

Journal of Sport History

0.7

Journal of Sport Management

<1.0

Journal of Sport Rehabilitation

 

Journal of Sports Chiropractic and Rehabilitation

0.9

Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness

 

Journal of Sports Science and Medicine

1.7

Journal of Sports Sciences

 

Journal of Sports Traumatology

1.1

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

 

Journal of Swimming Research

<1.0

Journal of Teaching in Physical Education

1.0

Leisure Sciences

 

Leisure Studies

 

Measurement in Physical Education & Exercise Science

<0.1

Medicina dello Sport

2.8

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

 

Medicine and Sport Science

1.6

Pediatric Exercise Science

 

Pediatric Physical Therapy

<1.0

Perceptual and Motor Skills

 

Physical Educator

1.7

Physical Therapy

<1.0

Physical Therapy in Sport

<1.0

Physician and Sportsmedicine

<1.0

Physikalische Medizin Rehabilitationsmedizin Kuror.

1.3

Psychology of Sport and Exercise

<1.0

Quest

 

Research in Sports Med (was Sports Med Train Rehab)

1.1

Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport

2.2

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports

<1.0

Science and Sports

<1.0

Sociology of Sport Journal

 

Sport History Review

??

Sport, Education, and Society

<1.0

(The) Sport Psychologist

 

Sports Biomechanics

 

Sports Exercise and Injury

3.3

Sports Medicine

<1.0

Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review

??

Sports Medicine Standards & Malpractice Reporter

<1.0

Sportverletzung-Sportschaden

 

Strength and Conditioning

<1.0

Strength and Conditioning Journal

 

Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal

Thomson Scientific, Inc. is the publisher and copyright owner of the Journal Citation Reports®.
Impact Factors listed in this article are used with the express permission of Thomson Scientific.

Published June 2006

©2006