A new journal power-weakness ratio to measure journal impact

• Main Authors: Abu Ujum, Ephrance, Kumar, Sameer, Ratnavelu, Kurunathan, Prathap, Gangan
• Format: Article
• Published: Springer Verlag 2021
• Subjects: QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science; Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/26751/

Journal impact indicators are useful measures to determine the relative importance of journals within a given discipline. By recasting the journal cross-citation matrix as a directed network, journals can be represented by nodes and journal-journal citations correspond to weighted directed links between nodes. In this form, it is possible to use graph-theoretic approaches to determine a ranking of nodes based on the structure of the links they are embedded in. Based on the Power-Weakness paradigm originally introduced by Ramanajucharyulu for ranking players in a tournament, we show how this idea can be modified under a bibliometric setting to find journals that contribute proportionate inbound and outbound citation flows within a homogeneous citation network to the extent that the power to influence and the weakness to be influenced by other journals are in near equal measure. We study two journal systems based on the Library and Information Sciences field based on a citation window in 2012 and another in 2018.