Institute for Scientific Information
Encyclopedia
The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was founded by Eugene Garfield
in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare
in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation
.
ISI offered bibliographic database
services. Its specialty: citation index
ing and analysis, a field pioneered by Garfield. It maintains citation databases covering thousands of academic journal
s, including a continuation of its longtime print-based indexing service the Science Citation Index
(SCI), as well as the Social Sciences Citation Index
(SSCI), and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index
(AHCI). All of these are available via ISI's Web of Knowledge database service. This database allows a researcher to identify which articles have been cited most frequently, and who has cited them.
The ISI also publishes the annual Journal Citation Reports
which list an impact factor
for each of the journals that it tracks. Within the scientific community, journal impact factors play a large but controversial role in determining the kudos attached to a scientist's published research record.
A list of over 14,000 journals is maintained by the ISI. The list includes over 1100 arts and humanities journals as well as scientific journals. Listing is based on published selection criteria and is an important indicator of journal quality and impact.
The ISI also publishes a list of highly cited researchers
, one of the factors included in the Academic Ranking of World Universities
published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University
.
ISI publishes Science Watch, a newsletter which identifies every two months one paper published in the previous two years as a "fast breaking paper" in each of 22 broad fields of science, such as Mathematics
(including Statistics
), Engineering
, Biology
, Chemistry
, and Physics
. The designations are based on the number of citations and the largest increase from one bimonthly update to the next. Articles about the papers often include comments by the authors.
Eugene Garfield
Eugene "Gene" Garfield is an American scientist, one of the founders of bibliometrics and scientometrics. He received a PhD in Structural Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. Dr. Garfield was the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information , which was located in...
in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare
Thomson Scientific & Healthcare
Thomson Scientific & Healthcare was a division of the Thomson Corporation until 2006.The division then split into two new divisions: Thomson Scientific and Thomson Healthcare.-External links:***...
in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a provider of information for the world's businesses and professionals and is created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of Reuters Group on 17 April 2008. Thomson Reuters is headquartered at 3 Times Square, New York City, USA...
.
ISI offered bibliographic database
Bibliographic database
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc...
services. Its specialty: citation index
Citation index
A citation index is a kind of bibliographic database, an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents. The first citation indices were legal citators such as Shepard's Citations...
ing and analysis, a field pioneered by Garfield. It maintains citation databases covering thousands of academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
s, including a continuation of its longtime print-based indexing service the Science Citation Index
Science Citation Index
The Science Citation Index is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information and created by Eugene Garfield in 1960, which is now owned by Thomson Reuters. The larger version covers more than 6,500 notable and significant journals, across 150 disciplines, from ...
(SCI), as well as the Social Sciences Citation Index
Social Sciences Citation Index
Social Sciences Citation Index is an interdisciplinary citation index product of Thomson Reuters' Healthcare & Science division. It was developed by the Institute for Scientific Information from the Science Citation Index....
(SSCI), and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
The Arts & Humanities Citation Index , also known as Arts & Humanities Search is a citation index, with abstracting and indexing for more than 1,300 arts and humanities journals, and coverage of disciplines that includes social and natural science journals. Part of this database is derived from...
(AHCI). All of these are available via ISI's Web of Knowledge database service. This database allows a researcher to identify which articles have been cited most frequently, and who has cited them.
The ISI also publishes the annual Journal Citation Reports
Journal Citation Reports
Journal Citation Reports is an annual publication by the Healthcare & Science division of Thomson Reuters. It has been integrated with the Web of Knowledge, by Thomson Reuters, and is accessed from the Web of Science to JCR Web. It provides information about academic journals in the sciences and...
which list an impact factor
Impact factor
The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...
for each of the journals that it tracks. Within the scientific community, journal impact factors play a large but controversial role in determining the kudos attached to a scientist's published research record.
A list of over 14,000 journals is maintained by the ISI. The list includes over 1100 arts and humanities journals as well as scientific journals. Listing is based on published selection criteria and is an important indicator of journal quality and impact.
The ISI also publishes a list of highly cited researchers
ISI highly cited researcher
ISI Highly Cited is a database of "highly cited researchers"—scientific researchers whose publications are most often cited in academic journals over the past decade, published by the Institute for Scientific Information...
, one of the factors included in the Academic Ranking of World Universities
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
.
ISI publishes Science Watch, a newsletter which identifies every two months one paper published in the previous two years as a "fast breaking paper" in each of 22 broad fields of science, such as Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
(including Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
), Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, and Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. The designations are based on the number of citations and the largest increase from one bimonthly update to the next. Articles about the papers often include comments by the authors.
See also
- Google ScholarGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest...
– a similar free service - CiteSeerXCiteSeerXCiteSeerX is a public search engine and digital library and repository for scientific and academic papers with a focus on computer and information science. It is loosely based on the previous CiteSeer search engine and digital library and is built with a new open source infrastructure, SeerSuite,...
– similar free service primarily in computer science - GetCITEDGetCITEDGetCITED is a website database that lists publication and citation information on academic articles whose information is entered by members. It aims to include not only journal articles but also book chapters and other publications, both peer-reviewed and non-reviewed...
– an attempt to replicate Web of Science with a free service - List of academic journal search engines
- Impact factorImpact factorThe impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...
- Institute for Scientific Information highly-cited researcher
- Materials Science Citation IndexMaterials Science Citation IndexThe Materials Science Citation Index is a citation index, established in 1992, by Thomson ISI . Its overall focus is cited reference searching of the notable and significant journal literature in materials science. The database makes accessible the various properties, behaviors, and materials in...