It is time again for the annual scientific journal ranking season for peer-reviewed scientific journals that are indexed in major public databases. Each year, citations to published articles from the previous year are counted, and numerous metrics are then derived and compared across journals by several different agencies. In the end, these metrics provide ample opportunities for all to claim success in some way.

The dominant force driving the 2021 citation counts and influencing journal ranks was once again the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus. COVID-19 wreaked havoc in our lives, shuttered research laboratories for prolonged periods, and constrained most clinical research involving human subjects. What investigators found time to do was write, making 2020 and 2021 a bountiful season in academic publishing.

Optometry and Vision Science did very well in 2021. The journal came within a handful of its all-time record for most manuscript submissions received within a single year. The total number of citations to the journal was more than 8600—an increase of more than 1000 from last year. Total citations to the journal are plotted for the past 25 years in Fig. 1. The 2-year Journal Impact Factor (Clarivate) was 2.11 (up from 1.97), and the 5-year impact factor was 2.40 (up from 2.22)—both were all-time highs for the journal. The 2- and 5-year impact factors for Optometry and Vision Science over the past 25 years are plotted in Fig. 2.

FIGURE 1:

Total citations to articles published in Optometry and Vision Science by year.

FIGURE 2:

Journal Impact Factor citation metrics over time (2-year and 5-year citation periods); provided by Clarivate Analytics.

Optometry and Vision Science continues to be highly selective in the content published. The overall acceptance rate for 2021 was 20%. In 2021, we published 57% original articles, 22% clinical case reports, and less than 5% review articles. The remaining content included clinical trials, evidence-based reviews, technical reports, and communications.

Despite larger-than-ever editorial office workloads, the review and publishing timelines continued to improve for Optometry and Vision Science. The average time to first decision for rejected articles was 4 weeks. Authors who were invited to revise their work for further consideration received notification at 7 weeks on average. The average time from author submission to final acceptance was 20 weeks; this includes time for revision and additional peer review. In 2022, the production time from acceptance to first online publication is now 1 week, and the average time to final publications is within 10 weeks of acceptance.

The deluge of new manuscript submissions received in 2020 caused the number of citations to rise dramatically and shuffled journal ranks considerably. Scientific disciplines with traditionally low citation rates—like vision science and ophthalmology—saw large increases in Journal Impact Factors. This trend continued in 2021. Journals that published 20% or more review articles continued to dominate the Journal Impact Factor rankings, whereas journals that published predominantly original research articles garnered the most citations. Larger journals in the field, those that published more articles and received a larger share of total citations, ranked highly when compared by h-index metrics. The h index is the number of articles (h) that received at least h citations over a defined time period.

So, what really matters? The reality is that scientific journals are not alike, and comparing them is sometimes an exercise in comparing apples with sausages. Journals that publish results from original research are very different from journals that publish review articles. For many years, the top-ranked journals by traditional metrics have been review journals—those that publish a large proportion of articles that review the work of other scientists. Although they may synthesize existing information, they do not offer new knowledge. Nevertheless, these reviews tend to attract a lot of citations, thereby inflating citation metrics without providing original contributions to a scientific field. Clinical journals have discovered this formula from time to time and use this strategy to inflate their citation metrics. Case reports, which are highly valued as clinical communications, often attract few citations and have therefore been jettisoned from most top scientific journals. Optometry and Vision Science will continue to publish case reports but will remain highly selective.

9600 (Q1) annual citations in Optometry and Ophthalmology: Scopus 16 of 61 (Q2) in Ophthalmology; total citations (Q2): Clarivate 16 of 127 (Q2: h index) in Ophthalmology and Optometry: Scopus 34 of 124 (Q2: h index) in Ophthalmology and Optometry: Google Scholar

Good science comes from good scientists and is generally improved by journals that provide rigorous peer review, which takes time. Good journals must find ways to provide sound peer review and attract work from talented scientists. Authors seeking fast lanes to publication and a high podium for their work are completely understandable. The challenge for journals is then to provide high-quality and rigorous peer review while maintaining rapid response times to meet the expectations of authors—and authors now have more choices on where they can publish. There are more peer-reviewed scientific journals today than ever before. However, this expansion of the number of journal titles has not necessarily elevated the quality of science. What we should expect to see from here is a moderate reduction in scientific publishing in 2022 as we return to more normal submission rates post-COVID. That will cause a drop in citations as investigators get back to the laboratory and begin dividing their time more equitably between design, conduct, analysis, and writing. Expect the games and competition around scientific publishing metrics to continue (Table 1).

TABLE 1 - 2021 Citation metrics for Optometry and Vision Science Source Metric Definition Value 2021 Rank Clarivate Citations Count of times articles in the target journal were cited 8631 1/12: Optometry (Q1)16/61: Ophthalmology (Q2);Clinical Medicine (Q1) JIF 2 y Average number of article citations to articles published in the past 2 y 2.11 40/61: Ophthalmology (Q3) JIF 5 y Average number of article citations to articles published in the past 5 y 2.40 41/61: Ophthalmology (Q3) Scopus Citations Count of times articles in the target journal were cited 9616 h Index Number of articles (h) that received at least h citations over a time period 102 (5 y) 1/12: Optometry (Q1)16/127: Ophthalmology (Q1) SJR Weighted citations received by the serial. Citation weighting that depends on subject field and prestige (SJR) of the citing serial 0.561 6/12: Optometry (Q2)59/127: Ophthalmology (Q2) Cite score Average citations received per document published in the serial 2.8 5/11: Optometry (Q2)52/124: Ophthalmology (Q2) SNIP Citations received relative to citations expected for the field 1.059 Google Scholar h-5 index Number of articles (h) that have received at least h citations over the past 5 y 33 2/12: Optometry (Q1)34/124: Ophthalmology (Q2)

JIF = Journal Impact Factor; SJR = SCImago Journal Rank; SNIP = Source Normalized Impact per Paper.

Michael D. Twa, OD, PhD, FAAO
Editor in Chief
Optometry and Vision Science
University of Houston College of Optometry
Houston, TX