Melville, NY, June 18, 2010 — The outstanding performance of American Institute of Physics journals in 2009—most notably Applied Physics Letters (APL) and Journal of Applied Physics (JAP)—highlights AIP's continued dominance of the 105 journals tracked in Thomson Reuters' Applied Physics category. All told, AIP journals produced nearly one quarter of the articles in the field last year, and received almost 40% of all the cited references in the category. These impressive numbers are among the figures reported yesterday in the 2009 Journal Citation Reports® Science Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2010).
Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Applied Physics once again ranked as the first and second most highly cited journals in their category. APL, the most highly cited journal in Applied Physics, garnered 186,353 citations during 2009 and JAP received 115,445.
"The long-term value and relevancy of APL and JAP is made evident by the number of citations they receive, perennially placing them among the most highly cited in their field," said John Haynes, AIP's Vice President of Publishing. "Led by these two prestigious publications—which rank as the second and third largest science journals in the world—AIP content has grown by more than half in the past decade. The rankings of APL and JAP are perhaps even more impressive in light of the fact that more than 7,300 journals are indexed in the Journal Citation Reports."
AIP is also pleased to announce the results of JCR rankings for a number of its other highly respected publications:
- The Journal of Chemical Physics was the most highly cited of the 33 journals in Atomic, Molecular, and Chemical Physics, coming close to equaling the total number of citations of the next three journals combined. Of all 336 physics journals in the JCR,JCP was the fourth most highly cited, with a total of more than 175,000 citations.
- Biomicrofluidics saw a 25% jump in impact factor to 2.895, placing it solidly in the top 5 in Fluids & Plasmasin just its second year being tracked by Thomson Reuters.
- Physics Today, AIP's flagship magazine, also saw a significant rise in its impact factor of more than 20% to 4.437.
- Physics of Plasmas was again the most highly cited journal dedicated entirely to plasma physics.
- Physics of Fluids was the second most highly cited of the 123 journals in Mechanics and the third most highly cited of 28 journals in Fluids & Plasmas.
- Review of Scientific Instruments is the third most highly cited of the 56 journals in Instruments & Instrumentation.
- Journal of Mathematical Physics enjoyed a more than 20% increase in its impact factor and, as it has for many years, posted a half-life of >10 years.
"Look across our entire program and the story is the same—AIP journals count the top researchers in their fields as Editors, editorial board members, and in particular, as authors and referees," said Mark Cassar, AIP's Publisher of Journals and Technical Publications. "As a result, it's really no surprise that our citation rankings are consistently high. This demonstrates quite clearly that a large number of researchers across a broad range of disciplines are building upon the work published in AIP journals. At this time we thank all of our authors, editors, and referees for their continued support."