Journal impact factors continue to rise

IChemE journals Chemical Engineering Research and Design (ChERD) and Food and Bioproducts Processing (FBP) showed a sharp increase in their impact factors for 2011, which were announced by Thomson Reuters last week.

ChERD saw its impact factor rise from 1.519 in 2010 to 1.968 – the fifth consecutive increase. FBP recorded an even steeper increase, from 1.207 to 1.940, over the same period. Meanwhile the impact factor of Process Safety and Environmental Protection (PSEP), which had seen a record increase to 1.453 in 2010, was down to 1.050 in 2011.

Eva Sorensen, ChERD’s editor-in-chief says: “The continuing increase in our impact factor is a clear measure of the success of the journal, and comes as a direct result of the high quality manuscripts we are now receiving and the hard work of our editorial board members and reviewers in ensuring only the very best papers are selected for publication”.

Claudia Flavell-While, director of publications at IChemE, adds: “The rising impact factors are driving more submissions to our journals – on ChERD for example we’ve seen submissions double between 2009 and 2011. It’s a clear demonstration that authors rate our journals as platforms for publishing world-class research.”

Impact factors are calculated by dividing the number of citations of papers from a journal over a two-year period by the total number of papers published in the journal over the same period. Although a rather crude measure of research impact, they are an important tool for scientists and engineers deciding where to publish their papers.