ERIC Number: EJ1141990
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-May
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
The Citation Index of Chemistry Education Research in the "Journal of Chemical Education" from 2008 to 2016: A Closer Look at the Impact Factor
Rodriguez, Jon-Marc G.; Bain, Kinsey; Moon, Alena; Mack, Michael R.; DeKorver, Brittland K.; Towns, Marcy H.
Journal of Chemical Education, v94 n5 p558-562 May 2017
Journal impact factors are a metric often used to evaluate journals; they are calculated by considering a journal's citation and publication rates during a specified time period. In some cases, impact factors can be misleading because they do not take into account the publication of different types of papers. In the "Journal of Chemical Education," many papers provide useful laboratory exercises and classroom activities for teaching faculty and instructors, but they are not formally considered chemistry education research. Laboratory and classroom activity papers may positively affect classroom practices and curriculum development through adaptation and implementation, yet are cited less frequently. This study calculates a citation index for chemistry education research articles published between 2006 and 2015 and compares that index to the published impact factor. We find that the calculated citation index at the two-year and five-year intervals is larger than the corresponding impact factor for the same time period, demonstrating that chemistry education research articles are cited with greater frequency than previously suggested by impact factor calculations.
Descriptors: Chemistry, Science Instruction, Citations (References), Periodicals, Journal Articles, Educational Research, Computation, Indexes, Incidence, Graduate Study
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A