IEEE Journals Dominate Citation Rankings Across Technology Categories

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization advancing technology for humanity, announced today that its journals once again dominated the citation rankings across multiple technology fields including Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Hardware, Automation & Control Systems, Cybernetics, Imaging Science, and more, according to the 2022 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) from Clarivate, released in late June 2023. 

Some highlights from the report:

● The new JCR data reveals that IEEE publications indexed by Clarivate have been cited nearly six million times from 2018 to 2022, demonstrating a significant impact in shaping new research and innovation across multiple technology categories.

● IEEE has more top quartile publications than any other publisher in many core fields of interest including Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, Automation and Control, Computer Hardware Imaging Science and more.

● A wide range of IEEE publications were consistently listed among the most-cited journals in multiple technology categories.

● Several IEEE journals saw significant increases in Journal Impact Factor, with some increasing as much as 30%, 40%, or even 70% over the prior year.

● In addition, 12 of IEEE’s new fully open access journals launched in 2020 have received their first Journal Impact Factors (JIF) in record time.

Top-Cited Journals in a Range of Technology Categories

In the most recent JCR report, a wide range of IEEE publications were consistently listed among the most-cited journals in multiple categories of the JCR findings as measured by Journal Impact Factor. IEEE periodicals led in many technology-related categories:

● 15 of the top 20 journals in Electrical & Electronic Engineering

● 10 of the top 10 journals in Telecommunications

● 5 of the top 10 journals in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence

● 3 of the top 5 journals in Automation and Control systems

● 3 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Cybernetics

● 3 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture

● 3 of the top 5 journals in Computer Science, Information Systems

● 3 of the top 5 journals in Imaging Science

#1 Ranked Journals in Several Categories

The following IEEE journals ranked No. 1 in their respective JCR categories:

● Cybernetics, Computing – IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics (JIF: 11.8)

● Information Systems, Computing – IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (JIF: 35.6)

● Imaging Science  – IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine (JIF 14.6)

● Telecommunications – IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (JIF: 35.6)

● Remote Sensing – IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine (JIF: 14.6)

Significant Increases in Journal Impact Factor

Several IEEE Journals saw significant increases in JIF, with some increasing as much as 30%, 40% or even 70%. Below are a few examples of several titles that saw significant increases in the latest report:

● IEEE Access: JIF of 3.9, an increase of 12%

● IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology: JIF of 8.4, an increase of 43%

● IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine: JIF of 6.9, an increase of 71%

● IEEE Communications Magazine: JIF of 11.2, an increase of 24%

● IEEE Transactions on Communications: JIF of 8.3, an increase of 34%

● IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles: JIF of 8.2, an increase of 64%

● IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics: JIF of 6.7, an increase of 12%

● Proceedings of the IEEE: JIF of 20.6, an increase of 38%

● IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications: JIF of 16.4, an increase of 25%

● IEEE Wireless Communications Letters: JIF of 6.3, an increase of 19%

● IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications: JIF of 10.4, an increase of 25%

The annual JCR study by Clarivate examines the influence and impact of scholarly research and offers a systematic, objective means to evaluate the world’s leading journals. By compiling articles’ cited references, the JCR helps to measure research influence and impact, and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals.

“In addition to publisher reputation and readership, the JCR Impact Factor rankings are one of several mechanisms used by researchers to assess the quality of journals when deciding where to submit their articles,” said Sergio Benedetto, IEEE Vice President-Publication Services and Products. “The rankings demonstrate the important role of IEEE publications in publishing important new discoveries in our fields of interest and disseminating that critical new information to the global community of millions of IEEE Xplore users. I would like to thank all of our many authors, reviewers, and editors for their important contributions to help IEEE continue to publish the highest quality information in the field.”

First Impact Factors for 12 New Fully Open Access Journals

In addition, 12 of IEEE’s new fully open access journals launched in 2020 have received their first Journal Impact Factors in Clarivate’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). For example, the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, one of IEEE’s recently launched open access titles, was ranked as the number two title in the Telecommunications category of the ESCI with an impact factor of 7.9.

Bibliometrics Beyond the Journal Impact Factor

IEEE also monitors other common bibliometric journal measurements such as Article Influence® Score and Eigenfactor®. Although calculated differently than Impact Factor, IEEE journals rank highly in those additional citation measurements as well:

● IEEE Access, IEEE’s largest fully open access publication, is ranked as the No. 1 journal by Eigenfactor in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications. In fact, IEEE has 9 of the top 10 journals in Electrical Engineering by Eigenfactor Score.

● IEEE Transactions on Image Processing was ranked as the No. 1 journal by Eignefactor in Artificial Intelligence. This was followed by IEEE Transactions on CyberneticsIEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, respectively, taking the top 4 spots in the AI category.

● In addition, IEEE has 8 of the top 10 journals in Electrical Engineering and the top 10 journals in Telecommunications as calculated by Article Influence Score.

For more detailed information on IEEE rankings and how each bibliometric measurement is calculated, please see the full results.