Introducing a bibliometric index based on factor analysis

• Published in: Scientometrics Vol. 127; no. 1; pp. 509 - 522
• Main Authors: Valderrama, Pilar, Jiménez-Contreras, Evaristo, Escabias, Manuel, Valderrama, Mariano J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bibliometrics; Computer Science; Factor analysis; Information Storage and Retrieval; Library Science; Journal impact factor; Weighed factor index; Library science; VARIMAX; Factor analysis
• ISSN: 0138-9130; 1588-2861
• DOI: 10.1007/s11192-021-04195-4

This work applies a factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation to develop a bibliometric indicator, named the Weighted Factor Index, in order to derive a new classification for journals belonging to a certain category, alternative to the one provided by the Journal Impact Factor. For this, 16 metrics from three different databases (Web of Science, Scopus and SCImago Journal Rank) are considered. The Weighed Factor Index entails the advantage of incorporating and summarizing information from all the indicators; so as to test its performance, it was applied to rank journals belonging to the category
Information Science & Library Science
.