A Proposal to Classify Latinamerican Scientific Journals using Citation Indicators: Case Study in Colombia

Colombian scientific journals are poorly represented in international digital libraries; however, through Google Scholar (GS) it is possible to determine their use by the community. Between the years of 2003 and 2007 a classification of 185 Colombian journals indexed in the Colombian National Bibliographical Index (IBNP) was performed using the information provided by GS, basing categorization on size indicators, indexation and citation. The indicators were analyzed by grouping the journals in two general areas: sciences and social sciences. In each area, the indicators provided by the digital libraries Scopus, Redalyc and Scielo were compared. Additionally, the indicators provided by IBNP journals categories (A1, A2, B and C) were also compared. The sciences and social sciences had a similar pattern in their indicators. The existence of positive correlations was established between some indicators and they predicted that the number of citations per journal in GS and the h index depends on its visibility in GS and Scopus. We put forward that the current IBNP categories (A1, A2, B or C) faintly reflect the use of journals by the community and we propose a classification based on the h index as an infometric indicator, which reflects not only its visibility in Google Scholar, but also its inclusion in certain international digital libraries, particularly Scopus. Our results may be applied to the creation of public policies regarding science and technology in Colombia and in developing countries.