LIS journals categorization in the Journal Citation Report: a stated preference study
This stated preference study approached the issue on sub-categorization of the information sciencelibrary science (ISLS) journals listed in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) 2011. To investigate this, 243 active authors/editors publishing in this field were requested to indicate their preferred category to 83 journal titles listed in JCR 2011 from four options: information science (IS), library science (LS), information systems (ISys) and do not know/undecided. Based on the popularity count, respondents assigned 39 titles to LS, 23 titles to IS and 21 titles to ISys. Twenty-five titles received high do-not-know countsthese are titles in non-English languages, information management and publishing sub-fields. Only one title in LS was grouped in the highest quartile by impact factor, compared to 8 titles in IS and 11 in ISys. This indicates that LS journals are hardly represented among the top 25% of the impact factor distribution of JCRs ranked ISLS journals. Respondents show concern about the fit of information systems journals in the ISLS category.
stated preference studies journal citation report (jcr) library and information science journals journal studies journal subject categorizations