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Research Impact

Fuzzy metrics

What is "fuzzy" metrics?

Non-typically recognized metrics which represent statistical translations of qualitative practices derived from the publishing and library contexts. Although fuzzy metrics are non-citation-based metrics, they still have great value as you can use them:

  • to tell a story about your recent accomplishment within a scientific field,
  • to find a reputable journal to publish your work.

What are the fuzzy metrics categories?

Fuzzy metrics fall under three categories:

  1. Acceptance Rate: This is the percentage rate of items submitted to a journal that are ultimately accepted for publication.
  2. Subscription & Circulation details: These metrics are numbers that indicate the size of the audience for a particular journal. These numbers can be the number of journal issues that circulate both in libraries and individual subscribers.
  3. Library Holdings: This metric refers to the number of libraries that count an item within its holdings.

How do I find journal fuzzy metrics?

There are several tips that you can utilize in order to locate fuzzy journal metrics.

Check the tabbed box below to find out these tips.

  1. Contact the journal editor: Many times, if you contact the editor of the journal, they will share their acceptance rate with you.
  2. Google the journal title: Some journals have their acceptance rate available on their home page e.g. Tailor & Francis journals. Alternatively, if you Google a specific society, they may also publish the acceptance rates of associated journals e.g. American Psychological Association
  3. Check Elsevier Journal Acceptance Rate List  : They keep track of their journals acceptance rates on an annual basis.
  4. Check Cabell's Scholarly Analytics: this is a fee-based tool that provides journal rates and predatory journals reports however, we do not currently subscribe to this resource.

What should I consider when comparing journal rates?

  1. A prestigious and multidisciplinary journal like Science or Nature will receive many more submissions than they can accommodate in publishing, regardless of merit, resulting in a low acceptance rate.
  2. A special journal on a narrow topic may only have a limited number of experts writing in the field, resulting in a higher rate.
  3. Journals that publish a limited number of paper issues would have a lower rate than one that publishes many issues online (where page counts don't significantly affect costs).
  4. Gold open access journals do tend to have higher acceptance rates than other open access types, but these also tend to be younger journals: as these journals age, will those acceptance rates decrease, or will the open access model influence the acceptance rate.

 

  1. Google the journal title: Some journals have subscription and circulation numbers available on their homepage.
  2. Check the MLA Directory of Periodicals . It contains extensive information about the journals and book series indexed in the MLA International Bibliography. The records consist of editorial contact information, frequency of publication, descriptions of the periodicals' scopes, circulation figures, subscription prices and addresses, advertising information, submission guidelines, and information on whether or not journals are peer reviewed. The directory may also provide statistics on how many articles and book reviews the periodicals publish each year, as well as how many are submitted.

An image showing circulation metric for a journal in MLA Directory of Periodicals

  1. Search items in our Discovery . This tool helps you easily locate resources available at our library and in libraries worldwide through the single WorldCat search. WorldCat is a global catalog of library materials, and authoritative online collections. Searching in our Discovery  gives you a general approximation of how many and which libraries have added an item to their collections. Very useful metric to demonstrate impact for authors of scholarly books.

An image showing Discovery holdings in Libraries Worldwide

     

       2. Compare holdings for similar items appearing in Discovery : This provides you with a relative sense of the numbers meaning.