Higher Impact Factor of Neuroimaging Journals Is Associated With Larger Number of Articles Published and Smaller Percentage of Uncited Articles

The relationships among various citation metrics have been probed in multiple scientific research disciplines but not neuroimaging. The aim of the current study was to assess the citation metrics of neuroimaging journals and analyze their relationships. The Journal Citation Reports (JCRs) published by Clarivate Analytics was accessed to extract relevant data for each of the 14 journals from the neuroimaging category. Pearson correlation tests were conducted to test if the citation metrics had significant correlations. Impact factor was positively correlated with citable items (r = 0.717, p = 0.004). Percentage of uncited citable items and percentage of journal self citations were partially negatively correlated with citation distribution, i.e., the percentages of citable items that contributed to 20%, 50% and 80% of total citations. The current study has implied that all the abovementioned metrics should be considered together to provide multi-faceted evaluations instead of using a single metric, at least in the neuroimaging field.