A comparative Evaluation of the Impact Factor Indicators Function of IF, IPP, SJR, SNIP in Introducing valid journals in social sciences, engineering, engineering and medicine fields

The main purpose of this study is to determine the difference between the IF and the indicators of SJR, SNIP, and IPP in introducing scientific journals in scientific fields.

This research is an applied research and in terms of implementation method, it is a scientometrics study (comparative type). The population is the top scientific journals, which are in the first quarter of the list of JCR magazines, and includes 1093 titles in medical, technical, engineering, and social science fields. The required data were collected through the online search at JCR, Scopus and SCImago. The statistical tests of Kolmogorov Smirnov were used for data normalization and exploratory factor analysis to test the hypotheses.

Findings showed that the mean difference between two indicators of "IF" and "SJR" was significant in the fields of engineering and social sciences, and the mean difference between these two indices was not significant in the field of medicine. In each of the three fields, the mean difference between the two "IF" and "SNIP" indicators is significant. In the medical and social sciences, the mean difference between the two "IF" and "IPP" indicators was significant and not significant in the field of engineering. In the social sciences, the indicators of the "SJR", "SNIP" and "IPP" are highly correlated and the "IF" has no high correlation with other indicators. In the field of engineering and medical sciences, the "IF", "SNIP" and "IPP" indicators are highly correlated and the "SJR" index has no high correlation with other indicators.

The result showed that the use of different indicators in different subjects has given different results, and a more accurate index should be selected in each field according to the degree of closeness and the difference between these differences. The indicators of SJR, SNIP, and IPP in the social sciences, and the indicators of IF, SNIP and IPP, respectively, in the field of engineering and medical sciences, are the most relevant indicators for citation and decision making, because of the most similarity in the ranking of journals in these fields. The use of the IF in the field of social sciences and the SJR in the fields of engineering and medical sciences due to lack of correlation with other indicators do not seem appropriate and in general, the use of the two indicators of IPP and SNIP in all thematic areas are better and more reliable indicators