Citation and impact factor distributions of scientific journals published in individual countries

The distributions of citations L, two- (IF2) and five-year impact factors (IF5), and citation half-lives λ of journals published in different selected countries are analyzed using Langmuir-type relation: yn = y0 {1 − αKn/(1 + Kn)}, where yn denotes Ln, IF2n or IF5n of n-ranked journal, y0 is the value of yn when journal rank n = 0, α is an empirical effectiveness parameter, and K is the Langmuir constant. It was found that: (1) the general features of the distribution of Ln, IF2n or IF5n of the journals published in different individual countries are similar to the results obtained before by the author from the analysis of the citation distribution data of papers of individual authors (K. Sangwal, Journal of Informetrics 7 (2013) 36–49), (2) in contrast to the theoretically expected value of the effectiveness parameter α = 1, the calculated values of α > 1 for journals published in different countries, (3) the trends of the distribution of cited half-lives λn of journals differ from those of Ln, IF2n and IF5n data for different countries, and show one, two or three linear regions, the longest linear regions with low slopes are observed in the case of countries publishing relatively high number of journals, and (4) the product of the Langmuir constant K and the number N of journals for the processes of citations and two- and five-year impact factors of journals published in different countries is constant for a process. The results suggest that: (1) the values of α > 1 are associated with a process that retards the generation of items (i.e. citations or impact factors), the difference (α − 1) being related to the dissemination of contents of the journals published by a country, and (2) the constancy of KN is related to the publication potential of a country.

► Citation distributions of journals published in selected countries are analyzed. ► A Langmuir-type function was applied to analyze the distribution data. ► Function parameters are: constant α, Langmuir constant K and number N of journals. ► Difference (α − 1) is related to dissemination process of contents of journals. ► Constancy of KN is related to the publication potential of a country.