Abstract:
This article explores the use of the Institute for Scientific Information’s
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for journal management in academic
libraries. The advantages and disadvantages to using JCR citation data
for journal management are outlined, and a literature review summa-
rizes reported uses of these data by libraries and scholars. This study
researches the impact of journal self-citation on JCR rankings of library
and information science (LIS) and genetics journals. The 1994 rankings
by impact factor and total citations received were recalculated with jour-
nal self-citations removed; then the recalculated rankings were com-
pared to the original rankings to analyze the effect of self-citations. It is
concluded that librarians can use JCR data without correcting for jour-
nal self-citation, although self-citations do exert a major effect on the
rankings for a small number of journals.
