Achieving "space of physics journals": topological structure and the Journal Impact Factor

TL;DR

This paper uses the empirical distribution function of citations to analyze the structure of physics journals, revealing four distinct clusters and relationships based on publisher types and citation levels.

Contribution

It introduces a novel functional space analysis of EDFs to uncover the topological structure and relationships among physics journals, independent of average citation levels.

Findings

Identified four clusters of physics journals based on EDF analysis.

Revealed two binary oppositions: global vs. local publishers and high vs. low cited journals.

Showed the influence of publisher type on journal impact and citation patterns.

Abstract

The empirical distribution function of citations to journal articles (EDF for short) can become the fundamental tool for analyzing the scientific journals. Endeavors at making bibliometric analysis independent of the intuition of average citation levels have led us to the study of qualitative properties of physics journals in the functional space of EDFs. We show that the structure of this space establishes the connections and relationships that determine the essential features of physics journals. The research provides an analysis of 240 physics journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports 2015. The relevance of EDFs clustering is discussed. Our findings reveal four-cluster space of physics journals. The space brings to light the essential distinctions between physics journals and shows different level of influence of scientific publishers belonging to different types (professional physics societies, transnational and local publishers). The study of EDFs grouped by publishers reveals two binary oppositions that structure relations between them: "global\,--- local" publishers and "high cited\,--- low cited" publishers.