The Unique Citing Documents Journal Impact Factor (Uniq-JIF) as a Supplement for the standard Journal Impact Factor

TL;DR

The paper proposes the Uniq-JIF as a supplementary metric to the traditional JIF, aiming to provide a more accurate and manipulation-resistant measure of journal influence by counting each citing document only once.

Contribution

It introduces the Uniq-JIF metric and demonstrates its effectiveness in identifying citation manipulation and providing a nuanced view of journal impact.

Findings

Uniq-JIF is less than 20% lower than JIF for most journals.

Some journals show a drop of over 75% in Uniq-JIF compared to JIF.

Uniq-JIF helps identify journals with citation issues.

Abstract

This paper introduces the Unique Citing Documents Journal Impact Factor(Uniq-JIF) as a supplement to the traditional Journal Impact Factor(JIF). The Uniq-JIF counts each citing document only once, aiming to reduce the effects of citation manipulations. Analysis of 2023 Journal Citation Reports data shows that for most journals, the Uniq-JIF is less than 20% lower than the JIF, though some journals show a drop of over 75%. The Uniq-JIF also highlights significant reductions for journals suppressed due to citation issues, indicating its effectiveness in identifying problematic journals. The Uniq-JIF offers a more nuanced view of a journal's influence and can help reveal journals needing further scrutiny.