ISI Thomson Reuters

ISI Thomson Reuters

[Ronnie Brown]

In view of the recent correspondence which shows that TAC is not
properly listed by ISI I follow with my email to James Testa of
19/11/2009 which got a reply which seemed sympathetic and further
correspondence from Rodney Chonka which I thought had led to a proper
judgement.
-----------------------------

Email from Rodney Chonka to Bob Rosebrugh 02/07/2010

I am pleased to inform you that this journal has been accepted for the
following Thomson Reuters products beginning with volume 20(2008):

/Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE)/ including the /Web of Science/

/            ISI Alerting Service/

/            Current Contents/Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences
(CC/PC&ES)/

/--------------------/

I therefore suggest that Dr Testa be sent emails deploring the situation.

Ronnie Brown




----------------------------------
Dear James Testa,

(james.testa@thomson.com)

I attach an article on the use of metrics for Research Evaluation,
particularly with regard to mathematics.

I am interested in this as a founder member of the editorial boards of
three electronic journals

Theory and Application of Categories (TAC)

Homology, Homotopy and Applications (HHA)

Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures (JHRS)

of which only the second has managed to get through the seemingly
impenetrable `methodology' of the ISI  journal selection procedure.

I have made in 2003 a brief survey of editors of small journals in
mathematics and found deep resentment  at the treatment of distinguished
academic boards of editors,  in that submissions seem often to disappear
into black holes, and the qualifications of those who deal with the
process are unknown, unlike those of the editorial boards.

By relying on `impact factor' there is no allowance for the slow
acceptance of new ideas, and it seems certain that the use of the ISI
methodology is a brake on scientific progress, and of the development
and influence of new ideas.

This is certainly true in category theory, an area developed in the
second half of the last century, has had  a major influence in unifying
mathematics, and has  developed new methods particularly in higher
dimensional algebra.

A major influence in the development of category theory  has also been
the journal

Cahier de Geometrie et Topologie Categorique

again not on the ISI list.

Perhaps it also could be said that any methodology of selection of
journals must inevitably fail to detect new trends, and will reinforce
exiting tendencies. The technology you use is a commercial secret, not
subject to independent quality control inspection, and is perhaps
nowadays old fashioned?

I would be glad of any comments you may have on these points.

Yours sincerely

Emeritus Professor Ronald Brown
www.bangor.ac.uk/r.brown



[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

Re: ISI Thomson Reuters

[Dan Christensen]

Ronnie Brown <ronnie.profbrown@btinternet.com> writes:

> In view of the recent correspondence which shows that TAC is not
> properly listed by ISI
[...]
> Email from Rodney Chonka to Bob Rosebrugh 02/07/2010
>
> I am pleased to inform you that this journal has been accepted for the
> following Thomson Reuters products beginning with volume 20(2008):
>
> Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE)

Just to clarify the situation: the word "expanded" is the key here.  The
main ISI index is just called the Science Citation Index, and as far as
I can tell, it is the one that matters for the various citation statistics
that some administrators unfortunately think are important.  Thomson is
very reluctant to add journals to this index.

Dan


[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]