Editor-in-Chief John Meyer reflects on the newly released Web of Science Journal Citation Report, in the context of EP’s commitment to being a more globally inclusive journal.
The 2023 Web of Science Journal Citation Report (JCR) has now been released. This report includes some of the most widely discussed journal metrics: impact factor and a ranking of journals within fields. Environmental Politics has solidified its standing in the top-tier, among the small number of journals in these fields that are consistently the most cited.
Our journal’s impact factor for articles published in 2020 and 2021 is 5.5. Because the methodology of calculating impact factor has been changed in recent years, this number is not readily comparable to past years’ reports. This year, the journal ranked 7th of 187 political science journals and 30th of 127 environmental studies journals. In both cases, this places us in the very top quartile (Q1) of journals in these areas. Our 5-year impact factor has held steady at 6.0 for the past three years.
When I began my term as editor-in-chief in 2020, we committed ourselves to being a more globally inclusive journal, convinced that this was both the right thing to do and vital to the understanding of environmental politics. In doing so, we accepted that the effect upon journal metrics would be uncertain. With that in mind, I am very pleased that – by many different measures – our recent journal articles are more read and cited than before.
Our foremost commitment is to publishing illuminating and cutting-edge work that advances our understanding of environmental politics. Relying upon any single metric to evaluate our success in living up to this commitment is always inadequate and problematic. Yet our continuing presence in the top-tier of these rankings ensures that academic authors can submit their very best work to the journal, confident that their universities will recognize us as a leading venue for scholarship in the field. For that, I am deeply gratified.
John Meyer
Editor-in-Chief
