An index for evaluating journals in a small domestic citation index database whose citation rate is generally very low: A test based on the Korea Citation Index (KCI) database

This study describes the meaning of and the formula for S-index, which is a novel evaluation index based on the number of citations of each article in a particular journal and the rank of the article according to the number of citations. This study compares S-index with Impact Factor (IF), which is the most well-known evaluation index, using the Korea Citation Index data. It is shown that S-index is positively correlated with the number of articles published in a journal. Tapered h-index (hT-index), which is based on all articles of a journal like S-index, is compared with S-index. It is shown that there is a very strong positive correlation between S-index and hT-index. Although S-index is similar to hT-index, S-index has a slightly better differentiating power and ranks the journal with evenly cited articles higher.

► A new index named S-index is proposed for evaluating journals in a small domestic citation index database with very low citation rate.
► S-index is based on the number of citations of each article in a journal and the rank of the article according to the number of citations.
► There is a very strong positive correlation between S-index and tapered h-index.
► S-index is positively correlated with the number of articles in a journal.
► S-index ranks the journal with evenly cited articles higher.