New study ranks ACS journals most cited in chemistry

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2011 — In a recently released independent study¹, the peer-reviewed scientific journals of the American Chemical Society (ACS) are ranked as leaders in 27 subject categories, outperforming their commercial and Society published competition worldwide. In this study 60 percent of all journals published by ACS have an Impact Factor (a widely accepted metric of a journal’s impact in its field) of 4.0 or over — a greater proportion than any other publisher in the chemical or related sciences. Thomson Reuters reports that ACS Publications retains its leadership as the most cited sources in seven core chemistry publishing categories.

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The standardized Impact Factors and ranking system of Thomson Reuter’s Journal Citation Reports® are the foundation of how scientists around the world determine where to publish and what sources of chemical research they use in their professional endeavors. ACS Publications journals achieving superlative results in 2010 include the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the most cited journal in Multidisciplinary Chemistry with a record 369,164 total citations and a rise in Impact Factor to 9.019, and Chemical Reviews, the highest impact journal in chemistry, with an Impact Factor of 33.033. All told, journals from ACS Publications rank number one in either Impact Factor and/or total citations in 14 ISI scientific categories.

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Citation statistics — the number of times papers from a journal are cited by other scientists each year in their own research — are important indicators of a journal’s value and vitality to active researchers. With over 1.4 million citations in the seven chemistry categories, ACS Publications journals are the most cited in chemistry. Thomson Reuters calculates that total citations of American Chemical Society journals increased by eight percent in 2010, posting 1.8 million total citations on the year.

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The high ranking of ACS Publications journals is a testament to the independent editors of ACS journals, who are all noted and practicing scientists, and the 60,000 plus scientists from around the world that choose to publish with the ACS each year. The journals of the American Chemical Society have global impact: Indeed, over 60 percent of total articles published by ACS Publications come from outside North America. Journals from ACS Publications are available to scientists at over 5,500 institutional libraries and research centers worldwide: This community downloaded over 71 million peer-reviewed articles and papers from ACS Publications in 2010.

In addition to high Impact Factors, prestigious editors, and market-leading titles, authors submit their work to ACS, trusting ACS Publications’ use of technology to get newly published research into the hands of the scientific community as quickly as possible. The ACS Paragon Plus Environment, its digital review and editing suite, enables some of the fastest peer-review and publication times in scientific publishing. The ACS Web Editions content platform — hosting over one million original research and news articles, and its mobile-friendly app, ACS Mobile for iPhone, iPad, and Android — received awards for innovation from the Association of American Publishers in 2009 and 2011.

The Journal Citation Reports® also affirm ACS’ strategy of introducing new journals that reflect the changing needs of the chemistry community. ACS Nano, introduced in 2007 at the urging of the chemical community increased its Impact Factor from 7.493 to 9.855 in 2010 — an impressive performance for a journal within its first five years of publication. In 2011, ACS Publications will introduce two new journals: ACS Macro Letters, the short-form communication partner to ACS’s leading polymer science publication, Macromolecules, and ACS Synthetic Biology, dedicated to publishing the highest quality research in the emerging fields of synthetic and systems biology.

All told, journals from ACS Publications rank number one in either Impact Factor and/or total citations in 14 ISI categories demonstrating the vital role of the American Chemical Society in disseminating high quality, widely-read scientific information and results.

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¹Thomson Reuter’s annual Journal Citation Reports®

²Journals indexed higher in impact factor are not original research journals

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