Contribution of the ABC Affiliated Members - 2019 Special Issue

As is well known, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) is an independent and non-profit society, founded in 1916, which promotes scientific development for the benefit of society (ABC 2017). As an honorary organization, the ABC values and recognizes some of the best scientists in the country (Permanent Members) as well as researchers from international institutions (Correspondent Members) who have contributed to the advancement of scientific activities, working closely with Brazilian researchers and institutions.

There is another category introduced in 2007 called Affiliated Members. The purpose was to recognize young researchers for their achievements and provide them the opportunity to participate in the ABC undertakings for five years (non-renewable). To be nominated for this category, the researcher cannot be over 40 years old and must have already made substantial contributions in his/her scientific area. Presently, there are 148 Affiliated Members at the ABC. This was a very important and welcome initiative, as it generated more dynamism and brought young researchers closer to this traditional institution, which has just completed 106 years of activities.

To commemorate the centenary of the ABC, a special issue (91 Suppl. 1) with studies led by Affiliated Members was published by the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (AABC, Kellner 2019). This issue consists of 15 articles covering the following areas: Mathematical Sciences (1), Chemical Sciences (3), Earth Sciences (3), Biological Sciences (3), Biomedical Sciences (2), Agrarian Sciences (1), and Engineering Sciences (2). To get a general notion of how the papers published by the AABC are contributing to the bibliometric indexes of this journal, the most important publication of the ABC, I have made some brief analyses essentially based on the Impact Factor (IF) provided by the Journal Citations Reports (JCR), which showed some interesting (and surprising) results (e.g., Kellner 2020a, b, c). Here I will do the same with the special issue 94 Suppl. 1, briefly evaluating how these articles contributed to the journal’s 2021 Impact Factor (AABC IF-2021) recently released (Journal Citation Reports 2022).

As has been observed in previous studies (e.g., Kellner 2020a), some discrepancies regarding citations in 2021 were noted. Journal Citation Reports (2022) shows three citations for Barbosa et al. (2019) while on the Web of Science (WoS) page (which can now be accessed directly through JCR), it presents only two citations. The same happens with Alvalá et al. (2019; 27 citations in WoS and 28 in JCR) and Andersen & Winter (2019; 19 citations in WoS and 18 in JCR). I used the values presented by the JCR for the AABC IF-2021 as I understand that, ultimately, these are the numbers being used to calculate the IF of the AABC. I also made some comments about the AABC IF-2020 but using only the information available in WoS retrieved in 2022.

Of the 15 articles published in the special issue 91 Suppl. 1, all recovered by the JCR (resulting in a Missing Article Index of zero, see Kellner 2020b), 12 were cited at least once in 2020 (thus contributing to the AABC IF-2020) and 13 in 2021 (AABC IF-2021). This results in an Article Citation Factor (ACF, see Kellner 2020a) for 2020 (ACF 2019/2020) of 0.8000. Regarding 2021, this value was still higher, with 13 articles of 94 Suppl. 1 cited at least once in 2021, resulting in an ACF 2019/2021 of 0.8667 (Table I). Only three articles published in 94 Suppl. 1 were not cited in 2020 and two were not cited in 2021, very different from what was observed in other issues published by the AABC (Kellner 2020a, b, c). The AABC IF-2021 is 1,811, a historic record for the journal, but if only the articles published in the special issue 94 Suppl. 1 were considered, the IF would be 4.533 and the Rescaled Article Impact Factor (RAIF, see Kellner 2020a) would be 5.231 (Table I). These figures would considerably increase AABC’s ranking in the JCR, placing the journal among the top 10 scientific journals published in Brazil (Journal Citation Reports 2022).

Table I
Citations and indexes concerning the articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 by the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences that have been considered in the Impact Factor of 2020 and 2021.

Indexes	Citations
Art Pub 2019	15
Cit Art 2019/2020	12
Cit Art 2019/2021	13
Cit 2019/2020	50
Cit 2019/2021	68
Cit MCAr 2019-2020	16+14+4
Cit MCAr 2019-2021	28+18+4
ACF 2019/2020	0.8000
ACF 2019/2021	0.8667
91 Suppl. 1 IF-2020	3.333
RAIF 2019/2020	4.167
91 Suppl. 1 IF-2021	4.533
RAIF 2019/2021	5.231

• Abbreviations: ACF 2019/2020 – Article Citation Factor concerning articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 cited in 2020, ACF 2019/2021 – Article Citation Factor concerning articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 cited in 2021, Art Pub 2019 – number of articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1, Cit 2019/2020- number of citations in 2020 of articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1, Cit 2019/2021- number of citations in 2021 of articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1, Cit Art 2019/2020 – number of articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 cited in 2020, Cit Art 2019/2021 – number of articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 cited in 2021, Cit MCAr 2019/2020 – number of citations in 2020 of the three most cited articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1, Cit MCAr 2019/2021 – number of citations in 2021 of the three most cited articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1, RAIF 2019/2020 – Reescalated Article Impact Factor concerning articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 cited in 2020, RAIF 2019/2021 – Reescalated Article Impact Factor concerning articles published in the issue 91 Suppl. 1 cited in 2021, 91 Suppl. 1 IF 2020 – Impact Factor of 2020 concerning only articles published in the issue 91 Supplement 1, 91 Suppl. 1 IF 2021 – Impact Factor of 2021 concerning only articles published in the issue 91 Supplement 1.

It is noteworthy that there is a large variation in the number of citations in relation to two of the three most cited articles in 2021 published in this special issue. Alvalá et al. (2019) received 28 citations, Andersen & Winter (2019) 18 citations, and Luvizotto et al. (2019) four citations. In 2020, the same articles were also the most cited, with the first two having fewer citations and inverted position (Andersen & Winter 2019 with 16 citations, followed by Alvalá et al. 2019 with 14 citations, according to WoS).

The main conclusion of this exercise is that publications organized by ABC Affiliated Members have contributed substantially to the AABC IF. Not only to the AABC IF-2021, but also to the AABC IF-2020, which was 1,753 (Table I). More special issues with contributions from these young scientists can help improve the bibliometric indexes of this journal, the only one with a broad multidisciplinary scope published in Brazil.

REFERENCES

• ABC. 2017. Mission. Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Accessed on September 12, 2022. https://www.abc.org.br/en/a-instituicao/missao/
  » https://www.abc.org.br/en/a-instituicao/missao/
• ALVALÁ RCS, CUNHA APMA, BRITO SSB, SELUCHI ME, MARENGO JA, MORAES OLL & CARVALHO MA. 2019. Drought monitoring in the Brazilian Semiarid region. An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20170209. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765201720170209.
• ANDERSEN ML & WINTER LMF. 2019. Animal models in biological and biomedical research – experimental and ethical concerns. An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20170238. DOI 10.1590/0001- 3765201720170238.
• BARBOSA FHS, PORPINO KO, ROTHSCHILD BM, CABRAL UG & BERGQVIST LP. 2019. Arthritic lesions and congenital fusion in foot bones of Panochthus sp. (Xenarthra, Cingulata). An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20160812. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765201720160812.
• JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS. 2022. Journal Citation Reports Science Edition 2021, Clarivate Analytics. https://jcr-clarivate.ez29.periodicos.capes.gov.br/jcr-jp/journal-profile?journal=AN%20ACAD%20BRAS%20CIENC&year=2021&fromPage=%2Fjcr%2Fhome Accessed on October 5, 2022.
  » https://jcr-clarivate.ez29.periodicos.capes.gov.br/jcr-jp/journal-profile?journal=AN%20ACAD%20BRAS%20CIENC&year=2021&fromPage=%2Fjcr%2Fhome
• KELLNER AWA. 2019. Special Volume of the Affiliated Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20191088. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765201920191088.
• KELLNER AWA. 2020a. Development of Agrarian Sciences at the AABC with comments on impact and performance evaluations. An Acad Bras Cienc 92: e202092S1. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765202092S1.
• KELLNER AWA. 2020b. Development of Biological Sciences at the AABC. An Acad Bras Cienc 92: e202092S2. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765202092S2.
• KELLNER AWA. 2020c. A brief summary of the impact and performance of different scientific fields at the AABC. An Acad Bras Cienc 92: e2020924. DOI 10.1590/0001-37652020924.
• LUVIZOTTO DM, ARAUJO JE, SILVA MCP, DIAS ACF, KRAFT B, TEGETMEYE H, STROUS M & ANDREOTE FD. 2019. The rates and players of denitrification, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (DNRA) and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) in mangrove soils. An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20180373. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765201820180373.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  07 Nov 2022
• Date of issue
  2022