Journal Impact Factor are designed to assess significance and performance of individual journals, their role and position in the international formal and informal communication network, their quality or prestige as perceived by scholars and researchers . Scientific journals may differ with respect to their importance of their position in the journal communication system, their status or prestige.
Journal Impact Factor developed and promulgated by Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research and regularly published in the annual JIF reports of is a fundamental citation-based measure for significance and performance of journals and proceedings. Wherever the JIF report is available, a variety of journal contextual citation measures including and beyond the Journal Impact Factor can readily be built and calculated. If this is done based on a sound methodology and if the process steps are properly documented, bibliometric tools with wide fields of applications in the field of science information, information retrieval and research evaluation can be obtained from Database originally designed for the retrieval of scientific information. Thus, especially the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) has become perhaps the most popular bibliometric measure used in bibliometrics itself, but also outside the scientific community.
PSTERJIF developed and promulgated by Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research, New Delhi, India is completely unique, systematic and scientific way of computation and analysis based on the following parameters
- Governance and Commercial Quality/ Scientific Quality (110 Point)
- Editorial quality (190 Points)
- International presence and Infrastructure (180 Points)
- Contextual citation (520 Points)
I. Governance and Commercial Quality/ Scientific Quality
The following parameters are being considered for the evaluation.
- Depends on the National/ International indexation.
- Number of original research papers in different disciplines.
- Degree of acceptance of journal in the International and National market. Number of papers published annually from countries outside the journal's country of origin indirectly indicates a degree of the journal's acceptance on the international market. If more international publications the higher the score.
- Regularity of issuance, which is an important factor for a journal's stability and one of the key evaluation parameter at other international indexing databases
- We add score to journals on their continued presence on the market.
- Number of all papers published on annual basis Reflects potential authorship and acceptance for the journal. Papers published in regular issues are considered. Papers published in special issues and supplements are counted as they are considered to undergo the regular peer-review process.
- Governing bodies for the journal governance - For example, Editorial Board, Journal Advisory Board, Executive Board etc.
- The International representation in the Editorial Board adds to the score, for it creates a chance to further the journal's development.
II. Editorial quality
- Quality of Cover page [all the following items should appear clearly: title, ISSN, frequency, volume/issue/part number, month/year etc.,].
- The leading element of editorial quality is the uniform composition of presented manuscripts and adherence to a journal's instruction for its authors. For example, The summary should count 200-250 words and have a structured form, i.e. reflect structure of an article (background, material and methods, results, conclusion).
- References and Indices should be presented in consecutive order (as they are cited in the text).
- Detailed editorial and author guidelines information regarding manuscript preparation
- Editorial information should include a list of Editorial Board members, editorial correspondence addresses, the name and address of the publisher, ISSN and frequency of issuance (monthly, quarterly, bi annual, annual etc)
III. International presence and Infrastructure
International availability is important for the proper development of a scientific and engineering journal. Two factors are taken into consideration:
- The language of publication: English is preferable, since this is the universal
- Online Internet publications: The internet is an important medium for journal publications and for the exchange of professional information. It is due to its global availability, speed and low cost of publication, in comparison with printed journals. Internet availability enhances a journal's chance of broadening circulation and accelerating development. Access to editorial information, the table of contents, summaries, full text articles and search tools are evaluated. The preferred language of a website is English.
- Sales and Marketing network and International distribution offices all over the globe for dissemination of journals.
- Technical quality assesses proper presentation of the scientific content. The quality of the preprint process, especially desktop publishing (DTP), the ability to print in colour, and the quality of paper are evaluated.
IV. Contextual citation
Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research provides a base for evaluating the quality of papers by stressing on the Context which depends on two important parameters. Viz.,Coherence and Relevance.
Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research takes into consideration the following factors for evaluating the Coherence and Relevance parameters.
• Statement of the problem
• The way by which the purpose is established in the given context
• Methodologies followed for substantiating / justifying the proceedings / results / outcomes
In addition to this, the context is classified into two types:
a. Geographical context
b. Subject matter context
Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research furnishes weightages (Weightages are computed based on the empirical study of millions of research papers) for all the above four factors and the weightages are applied and finally, Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is computed.
I. Scientific Quality (110 points)
|
Categories
|
Remarks
|
Excellence
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Fine
|
Poor
|
Very Poor
|
Marks
|
International Scope
|
20
|
18
|
17
|
16
|
4
|
0
|
|
Scope of all thrust Area
|
30
|
25
|
23
|
20
|
5
|
0
|
|
Acceptance Level
|
30
|
25
|
23
|
20
|
5
|
0
|
|
No. of paper published regularity
|
30
|
25
|
23
|
20
|
5
|
0
|
|
Total
|
|
II. Editorial Quality (190)
|
Categories
|
Remarks
|
Excellence
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Fine
|
Poor
|
Very Poor
|
Marks
|
Level of Editorial Board
|
60
|
50
|
40
|
45
|
30
|
20
|
|
Level of Reviewer Board
|
50
|
40
|
35
|
30
|
20
|
10
|
|
Editing Quality
|
80
|
70
|
65
|
50
|
40
|
30
|
|
Total
|
|
III. International presence and Infrastructure (180)
|
Categories
|
Remarks
|
Excellence
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Fine
|
Poor
|
Very Poor
|
Marks
|
Scope
|
60
|
50
|
40
|
45
|
30
|
20
|
|
Indexing level
|
60
|
50
|
40
|
45
|
30
|
20
|
|
Industrial Impact
|
60
|
50
|
40
|
45
|
30
|
20
|
|
Total
|
|
IV. Contextual Citation (520)
|
Categories
|
Remarks
|
Excellence
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Fine
|
Poor
|
Very Poor
|
Marks
|
Originality
|
150
|
140
|
120
|
100
|
60
|
40
|
|
Presentation
|
50
|
40
|
30
|
25
|
15
|
10
|
|
Technical Accuracy
|
70
|
60
|
55
|
45
|
30
|
25
|
|
Significance & broader Impact
|
100
|
90
|
80
|
70
|
40
|
20
|
|
Relevancy
|
50
|
40
|
30
|
25
|
15
|
10
|
|
Implication for Industrial Practices
|
100
|
90
|
80
|
70
|
40
|
20
|
|
Total
|
|
Grand Total (Score Out of 1000)
|
|
Score Percentage
|
|
Five year journal impact factor - One year of citations to five years of articles
Review articles generally are cited more frequently than typical research articles because they often serve as surrogates for earlier literature, especially in journals that discourage extensive bibliographies. In the Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research system any article containing more than 50 references is coded as a review. The Source Data Listing in PSTERJIF report not only provides data on the number of reviews in each journal but also provides the average number of references cited in that journal's articles.
Naturally, review journals have some of the highest impact factors. Often, the first-ranked journal in the subject category listings will be a review journal.
Different specialties exhibit different ranges of Journal Impact Factor. That is why the Prerna Society of Technical Education and Research provides subject category listings. In this way, journals may be viewed in the context of their specific field. Still, a five -year impact may be more useful to some users and can be calculated by combining the statistical data available from consecutive years. It is rare to find that the ranking of a journal will change significantly within its designated category unless the journal's influence has indeed changed
Let us see how Five year Impact Factor is calculated now:
A= citations in 2015 to articles published in 2009-2014
B= articles published in 2009-2014
C= (A/B) + (Total Score/1000) = Five-year impact factor