Assessment of the scientific impact of Archivos de Neurociencias 2001-2016: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Background: Mexico is one of the countries with the highest scientific productivity in Latin America. One Mexican journal with a long history of publication is Archivos de Neurociencias (Arch Neurocien). Arch Neurocien evaluates its performance through citation-based indicators. A well-known indicator is “Impact Factor™” (IF). IF reflects the average number of citations received by articles published in journals indexed in the Journal of Citation Reports (JCR). Other similar indicators exist, like CiteScore and Scimago Journal Rank (SJR). Among them, IF represents the “gold standard”. Arch Neurocien is not indexed in JCR. Aims: In the present study, an Estimated Impact Factor (EIF) for the journal was calculated. Method: The methodology from Clarivate Analytics was used. Results were compared with other indicators to obtain a quantitative diagnosis of journal’s scientific impact. Results: Arch Neurocien showed an average of 0.39 citations/article. Most citations to Arch Neurocien appear in the same journal (self-citations), followed by Revista de Neurología (Spain) and Revista Mexicana de Neurociencias. Average EIF was 0.027±0.005. The highest EIF was 0.068 in 2001. EIF was significantly correlated with CiteScore (r=0.916, r2=0.840, p=0.010) and SJR (r=0.736, r2=0.543, p=0.001). Conclusion: Several strategies to improve the quality of its published articles are suggested, such as performing a complete revision of its editorial committee, promoting open access to its publications and developing strategies for its mass distribution.