A global comparison of Czech and Slovak academic journals based on their Impact Factor (IF) and Article Influence Score (AIS)
Abstract
We compare the scores in the widely used citation index of academic journals known as Impact Factor (IF) with the lesser known but more sophisticated index Article Influence Score (AIS). There is a positive correlation between the relative IF and AIS scores within fields, but the spread is quite high.
The difference between the IF and AIS scores is caused by differences in the extent of journal self-citation and in the academic importance of the journals from which journal articles are cited. Czech publication output in relatively major journals tends to be concentrated in journals with a lower AIS than IF.
These articles also tend to be concentrated in a rather small number of international journals. In many fields, Czech publication output is concentrated in Czech and Slovak journals, most of which have relatively low AIS and IF.
The IF and AIS of some Czech journals are entirely outside the natural range of scores worldwide.