Work

The influence of multidisciplinary mega-journals on the Journal Impact Factor: Discipline, country/region, category, JIF quartile, and journal

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study examines the significant impact of mega-journals (MJs) on the scholarly evaluation system, particularly their citation contributions and the increased impact factor scores of influenced entities. By analyzing seven MJs across multiple dimensions, including discipline, country/region, Web of Science (WoS) category, and JIF quartile, we used the Generalized Impact Factor (GIF) as a proxy for the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and developed the Contribution to Impact Factor (CIF) metric to quantify MJs' contributions. Our findings indicate that MJs can increase the GIF of scholarly entities by up to 7.79 %, even in countries/regions with millions of citations. Notably, Computer Science, Information Systems received 14.21 % of its citations from MJs, the highest among 241 fields studied. These results highlight the potential for MJs to inflate citation-based metrics, posing challenges to the academic evaluation system. We recommend adaptive strategies to mitigate JIF inflation or the development of alternative metrics to ensure a fair evaluation system.

Source: Data and Information Management

DOI: 10.1016/j.dim.2025.100112

Authors: Jing Li, Dengsheng Wu, Xinxin Chen

Institutions: Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen University

Language: English

Topic: scientometrics and bibliometrics research

Subfield: Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,350

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province