SPORTSCIENCE · sportsci.org

Latest issue

News & Comment / Training & Performance

This issue

Journal Impact Factors in Sports Medicine and Science for 2014

Will G Hopkins

Sportscience 18, 44-47, 2014 (sportsci.org/2014/wghif.htm)
College of Sport and Exercise Science, Victoria University, Melbourne 8001, Australia.  Email. 
Reviewer: Stephen Seiler, University of Agder, Faculty of Health and Sport, Kristiansand 4604, Norway

Exercise and Immunology Review again has the highest journal impact factor (9.9) in the sport and exercise disciplines, but Sports Medicine (5.3) has regained its lead over Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (4.8). Other top performers were American Journal of Sports Medicine (4.7), Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (4.5), British Journal of Sports Medicine (4.2), International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology (3.4), Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports (3.2), Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (3.1), International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (2.7), Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (2.6), Clinics in Sports Medicine (2.6), Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy (2.4). International Journal of Sports Medicine (2.4), Journal of Sports Sciences (2.1), and Human Movement Science (2.0). Journals with at least a moderate increase (>30%) since last year were International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology (no previous impact factor), Journal of Sport and Health Science (no previous impact factor), Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Sociology of Sport Journal, Journal of Human Kinetics, and Exercise and Immunology Reviews. Any attempt to eliminate the evil of impact factors by restriction of publication to institutional archives would probably fail.

KEYWORDS: citation, publication, research.

Reprint pdf · Reprint doc · Spreadsheet (sorted by impact factor)

 

This article represents my annual summary of the latest impact factors of journals in the disciplines of sport and exercise medicine and science. The impact factors are compiled and published around the middle of each year as InCites Journal Citation Reports by Thomson Reuters. You will need an institutional subscription to access this resource.

Table 1 lists the factors of our journals in alphabetical order, while the abstract summarizes the most noteworthy performers in the journals specializing in our disciplines (i.e., excluding more generic biomechanics, physiology and psychology journals). The meaning of the impact factor is summarized in the legend of the table. For a more detailed explanation and critique, see an earlier article in this series. Read subsequent articles for explanations of related statistics and publication issues, including the page-rank, cited half-life and immediacy indices, the H (Hirsch) index, post-publication peer review, peer-reviewed proposals, and article-influence scores.

The publication issue I want to share with you this year is a utopian vision of science without journals and impact factors as we know them in a climate of manuscript acceptance rather than the prevailing one of manuscript rejection. This new age would begin when administrators of the top universities decreed that all research articles of their academics would be published only in their own open-access institutional archives. They would make this decree only for the good of science (see below), so it may never happen, but anyway… All other institutions would quickly follow suit. The appropriate scholarly societies would be commissioned (paid) as disinterested third parties to perform non-anonymized peer reviewing. Regardless of the reviewers' recommendations, authors could and usually would opt to publish, provided that the reviewers' final comments and the authors' responses were also published. Most underpowered studies would therefore end up in print, so publication bias would practically disappear. Present-day journals would survive only as archives of their previous articles, but some would become digests, similar to the Trends inseries of magazines. Predatory open-access journals would disappear.

Unfortunately Tomson Reuters would start publishing institutional-archive impact factors. Concerned about attracting good researchers and funding, the universities would publish research only with favorable reviews, and we'd soon be back to where we are now. As suggested by the reviewer of this article, the impact factor is probably an inevitable evil of the "market economy" we now find in academia. "Thompson Reuters, the top universities, and the publishers are all part of a financial ecosystem that will always reinvent itself in some form or other."

 

Table 1. Impact factors (cites per article per year) for sports medicine and science journals based on articles published in 2011 and 2012 that were cited in 2013.  Some impact factors are shown as inequalities, to comply with terms of use set by Thomson Reuters. "???" indicates a possible inadvertent omission of the journal from the databases. "<1.0" implies a value between 0.1 and 1.0.  A journal without an impact factor is not in Thomson Reuters' science or social sciences databases, either because the journal is too new or the factor is too low. Color indicates direction and magnitude of change in impact factor since last year, as follows:

New

 ł60%

 30-59%

 10-29%

 0-9%

ł10%

<1.0

ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal

4.3

Acta Physiologica Scandinavica

1.1

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly

 

American Journal of Medicine and Sports

4.1

American Journal of Physiology - Endo & Metab

4.0

American Journal of Physiology - Heart & Circ

4.7

American Journal of Sports Medicine

 

American Journal of Sports Science

1.3

Applied Ergonomics

2.2

Applied Physiology Nutrition & Metabolism

<1.0

Applied Psychological Measurement

2.1

Applied Psychology-International Review

<1.0

Archives of Budo

 

Asian Journal of Sports Medicine

<1.0

Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine

2.5

Behavior Research Methods

<1.0

Biology of Sport

4.2

British Journal of Sports Medicine

1.9

Clinical Biomechanics

2.0

Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine

2.6

Clinics in Sports Medicine

1.6

Current Sports Medicine Reports

???

Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin

 

Electromyography and Motor Control

1.6

Ergonomics

2.3

European Journal of Applied Physiology

1.3

European Journal of Sport Science

<1.0

European Review of Aging and Physical Activity

 

European Sports History Review

9.9

Exercise and Immunology Review

4.8

Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews

 

Frontiers in Movement Science and Sport Psychology

2.3

Gait and Posture

1.8

High Altitude Medicine and Biology

2.0

Human Movement Science

???

International Journal of Athletic Therapy & Training

 

International Journal of Coaching Science

 

International J of Computer Science in Sport

9.2

International Journal of Epidemiology

<1.0

International Journal of History of Sport

0.8

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport

2.0

International J of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism

<1.0

International Journal of Sport Finance

???

International J of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship

<1.0

International Journal of Sport Psychology

2.4

International Journal of Sports Medicine

 

International J of Sports Medicine and Sports Sciences

2.7

International J of Sports Physiology & Performance

<1.0

International J of Sports Science & Coaching

 

International Quarterly of Sport Science

 

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

3.4

International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology

???

International Sportmed Journal

 

International Sports Journal

<1.0

Isokinetics and Exercise Science

 

Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sport

1.4

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity

1.1

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

1.1

Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

<1.0

Journal of Applied Biomechanics

3.4

Journal of Applied Physiology

4.4

Journal of Applied Psychology

1.1

Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

1.5

Journal of Athletic Training

2.5

Journal of Biomechanics

 

Journal of Combat Sports and Martial Arts

 

Journal of Comparative Physical Education & Sport

1.7

Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology

3.3

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

 

Journal of Exercise Physiology Online

<1.0

Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness

<1.0

Journal of Human Kinetics

 

Journal of Human Movement Studies

 

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

 

Journal of Human Sport and Exercise

1.5

Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition

 

Journal of Motor Learning and Development

<1.0

Journal of Leisure Research

1.4

Journal of Motor Behaviour

1.8

Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine

2.4

Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy

<1.0

Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

1.9

Journal of Physical Activity and Health

 

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance

 4.5

Journal of Physiology

 

Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports

 

Journal of Science and Cycling

3.1

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

2.6

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

???

Journal of Sport and Social Issues

 

Journal of Sport Behavior

???

Journal of Sport Economics

1.2

Journal of Sport and Health Science

 

Journal of Sport History

<1.0

Journal of Sport Management

<1.0

Journal of Sport Rehabilitation

<1.0

Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness

<1.0

Journal of Sports Science and Medicine

2.1

Journal of Sports Sciences

 

Journal of Sports Traumatology

1.9

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

 

Journal of Swimming Research

<1.0

Journal of Teaching in Physical Education

<1.0

Kinesiology

1.1

Leisure Sciences

1.1

Leisure Studies

 

Measurement in Physical Education & Exercise Science

<1.0

Medicina dello Sport

4.5

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

 

Medicine and Sport Science

1.5

Motor Control

1.6

Pediatric Exercise Science

 

Pediatric Physical Therapy

<1.0

Perceptual and Motor Skills

<1.0

Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy

 

Physical Educator

1.4

Physical Therapy in Sport

1.5

Physician and Sportsmedicine

1.8

Psychology of Sport and Exercise

<1.0

Quest

1.4

Research in Sports Medicine

1.3

Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport

3.2

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports

<1.0

Science and Sports

1.1

Sociology of Sport Journal

 

Sport History Review

1.3

Sport, Education, and Society

<1.0

(The) Sport Psychologist

<1.0

Sports Biomechanics

 

Sports Exercise and Injury

5.3

Sports Medicine

 

Sports Technology

<1.0

Sportverletzung-Sportschaden

<1.0

Strength and Conditioning Journal

 

Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal

 

Thomson Reuters is the publisher and copyright owner of the Journal Citation Reports®.
Impact factors listed in this article are used with the express permission of Thomson Reuters.

 

Published Nov 2014

©2014