Correlation among the citation indices of Korean scientific journals listed in international databases

We would like to verify the correlation among various citation indicators of 62 Korean scientific journals listed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. From a total of 85 Korean journals listed in both WoS as of January 2013, and 132 journals listed in Scopus as of 2011, 62 Korean journals listed in both citation indices were selected for analysis. Citation index indicators selected for analysis include impact factor (IF), 5-year impact factor (5yrIF), Eigenfactor score (EF), article influence score (AIS) (list of WoS indicators), SCImago journal rank (SJR), h-index, and impact index (ImIndex) (list of Scopus indicators). It took an average of eight years for a newly founded journal to be listed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). Since the IF, ImIndex, and AIS values failed to exceed 1.0, Korean journals’ popularity and prestige were confirmed to be minimal. Analyzed journals that were written in English exhibited higher SJR and h-index values than ones written in Korean. WoS’ IF exhibited a correlation with WoS’ 5yrIF, EF, AIS, and Scopus’ SJR, h-index, and ImIndex. Since the ‘popularity and prestige of Korean journals’ have been confirmed to be minimal, steps must be taken to improve this status. Popularity-based indicators have been shown to strongly correlate with prestige-based indicators in Korean science journals. Therefore, there must be a strategic approach taken to improve IF values.