Analysis of Percentiles of Computer Science, Theory and Methods Journals CiteScore Versus Impact Factor

Hilary I Okagbue; Shiela A. Bishop; Patience I. Adamu; Abiodun A. Opanuga; Emmanuela C.M. Obasi

doi:10.14429/djlit.40.01.14866

Hilary I Okagbue Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
Shiela A. Bishop Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
Patience I. Adamu Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
Abiodun A. Opanuga Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
Emmanuela C.M. Obasi Department of Computer Science and Informatics, Federal University, Otuoke, Nigeria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.40.01.14866

Keywords: Scopus, Science citation index expanded, Web of science, CiteScore, Impact factor, Median test, Journal percentile, Statistics

Abstract

Impact factor (Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics) and CiteScore (Scopus, Elsevier) are the two leading metrics for journal evaluation, assessment and ranking. The relationship between the two is now established, using their respective percentile in this paper for 105 journal in the Computer science, theory and methods (CSTM) subject category. The available studies did not consider the quartile comparison of the journal percentiles of the two database (Scopus and Science Citation Index expanded). The mean impact factor and CiteScore are 2.08 and 2.67 respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient between the impact factor and CiteScore is (0.919, p = 0.000) and between their respective journal percentiles is (r = 0.804, p = 0.000). Analysis of variance revealed that the means of the impact factor and CiteScore of the 105 CSTM journals are the same (F = 3.64, P = 0.058) but different (F = 38.94, P = 0.00) for their respective percentiles. The median test contradicts the ANOVA as the medians of impact factor and CiteScore are different at 0.05 level of significance. The median journal percentiles are the same for only 2 journal titles. The median journal percentile (SCIE) is greater than the median journal percentile (Scopus) for 5 journal titles and less than the median journal percentile (Scopus) for 98 journal titles. The same result was obtained when the percentiles were converted to quartiles, but in this case, the median journal quartiles are the same for 37 journal titles. The median journal quartile (SCIE) is greater than the median journal quartile (Scopus) for 67 journal titles and less than the median journal quartile (Scopus) in only one journal title. Only 37 (35 %) journals are in the same quartile of the two metrics. Caution is recommended in journal evaluation as conflicting different results can be obtained using the same metric.

Author Biographies

Hilary I Okagbue, Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Dr Hilary I. Okagbue is a Faculty at the Department of Mathematics, Covenant university, Ota, Nigeria. Her area of specialisation are Statistical Data Analysis, Statistical Learning and Mathematical Statistics.

He has conceived the idea, performed the data analysis and participated in the drafting of the manuscript.

Shiela A. Bishop, Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Dr Sheila A. Bishop is a Senior Faculty at the Department of Mathematics, Covenant university, Ota, Nigeria. Her area of specialisation are Statistical Data Analysis, Quieting Systems and Mathematical Modelling.

She contributed in drafting of the introduction and literature review and reviewed the manuscript.

Patience I. Adamu, Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Dr Patience I. Adamu is a Senior Faculty at the Department of Mathematics, Covenant university, Ota, Nigeria. His area of specialisation are Statistical Data Analysis, Algorithms and Optimisation.

He contributed in drafting of the introduction and literature review and reviewed the manuscript.

Abiodun A. Opanuga, Department of Mathematics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Dr Abiodun A. Opanuga is a Faculty at the Department of Mathematics, Covenant university, Ota, Nigeria. Area of specialisation: Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Modelling.

He contributed in retrieving the data from the databases, interpreting the result and participated in the drafting of the manuscript.

Emmanuela C.M. Obasi, Department of Computer Science and Informatics, Federal University, Otuoke, Nigeria

Ms Emmanuela C.M. Obasi is a Faculty at the Computer Science and Informatics, Federal university, Otuoke, Nigeria. Area of specialisation: Data Analysis, Database Management and Machine Learning.

She contributed in the analysis, interpreted the result and participated in the drafting of the manuscript.