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The ISI Web of Knowledge recently published the 2007 Journal Citation Reports. Following a similar study I performed last year, here is my analysis of the current status and trends for the impact factor in computer science journals.

Let me start with an overview of the method I followed. I performed my analysis on the 382 journals appearing under the computer science subject categories: artificial intelligence; cybernetics; hardware & architecture; information systems; interdisciplinary applications; software engineering; theory & methods. Note that journals may appear in many categories. In particular, there are many overlaps between the above categories and "electrical and electronic engineering" and "operations research and management science".

Don't take this report too seriously. The impact factor is notoriously prone to misuse; let's not make the situation worse. Also note that in computer science there are tens of prestigious conferences whose impact factor is higher than that of most journals.

Journals with Highest IF

Rank	Name	ISSN	IF
1	MIS QUART	0276-7783	5.826
2	ACM COMPUT SURV	0360-0300	5.250
3	BIOINFORMATICS	1367-4803	5.039
4	VLDB J	1066-8888	3.818
5	COGNITIVE BRAIN RES	0926-6410	3.769
6	NEUROINFORMATICS	1539-2791	3.750
7	IEEE T PATTERN ANAL	0162-8828	3.579
8	MED IMAGE ANAL	1361-8415	3.505
9	ACM T GRAPHIC	0730-0301	3.413
10	J WEB SEMANT	1570-8268	3.410

As in 2007, note here the high impact factor journals touching on life-sciences. This is more an indication of impact factor variations between various fields than an inherent quality property of these journals that distinguishes then from other computer science publications. Also interesting is the fact that MISQ is heading the list ahead of ACM Computing Surveys, which publishes exclusively highly-citable survey articles.

Journals Added to the JCR in 2007

CLUSTER COMPUT
COGN SYST RES
COMPUT CONCRETE
COMPUT METHOD BIOMEC
CRYPTOLOGIA
DIGIT INVEST
ELECTRON COMMER R A
IEEE COMPUT INTELL M
IEEE T INF FOREN SEC
IET COMPUT DIGIT TEC
IET COMPUT VIS
INT J ARTIF INTELL T
INT J NEURAL SYST
INT J WAVELETS MULTI
INTELL DATA ANAL
J CELL AUTOM
J OPT NETW
J STAT SOFTW
J WEB SEMANT
NEURAL NETW WORLD

Notable in the above list is Elsevier's Journal of Web Semantics which got an ISI impact factor in 2007 and went straight into the computer science top ten list. The addition of Cryptologia deservedly increases the number of cryptological journals with an ISI impact factor to three, thus lessening the pressure from the cryptological community on computer security publication avenues.

Journals Dropped from the JCR in 2007

COMPUT HUMANITIES
IEE P-COMPUT DIG T
MODEL IDENT CONTROL

Here I lament the dropping of Springer's Computers and the Humanities. On March 21st, 2005 the journal was renamed into Language Resources and Evaluation, but that apparently didn't help stave off its decline. I find this journal's travails a sign of lessening interest on scientific work that doesn't offer marketable returns.

Journals with the Highest Increase in IF

Name	ISSN	Δ IF
IBM J RES DEV	0018-8646	1.423
REAL-TIME IMAGING	1077-2014	1.284
COGNITIVE BRAIN RES	0926-6410	1.201
ACM T SOFTW ENG METH	1049-331X	1.156
INFORM SCIENCES	0020-0255	1.144
ACM COMPUT SURV	0360-0300	1.12
MIS QUART	0276-7783	1.095
INT J INNOV COMPUT I	1349-4198	0.813
IEEE MICRO	0272-1732	0.743
ARTIF INTELL	0004-3702	0.737

The IF increase of IEEE Micro shows that this magazine, after some years of floundering at the end of the PC revolution, has again found an appropriate niche bringing itself back on a promising track. The increase of the ACM Computing Surveys IF is a response to a corresponding decrease last year.

Journals with the Highest Decrease in IF

Name	ISSN	Δ IF
ACM T INFORM SYST	1046-8188	-3.09
INT J COMPUT VISION	0920-5691	-2.704
IEEE T EVOLUT COMPUT	1089-778X	-1.344
J CRYPTOL	0933-2790	-1.009
IEEE INTELL SYST	1541-1672	-0.975
INFORM RETRIEVAL	1386-4564	-0.974
MACH LEARN	0885-6125	-0.912
J AM MED INFORM ASSN	1067-5027	-0.885
IEEE T MOBILE COMPUT	1536-1233	-0.834
IEEE T PATTERN ANAL	0162-8828	-0.727

Here I can't help but note the appearance of four journals that publish broadly related research: IEEE Intelligent Systems, Machine Learning, IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis, and Information Retrieval. A sign of trouble ahead?

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