Note: some readers hope to read the translated version. But till now, I haven't got it yet. I'll try to translate them part by part --Waterlilyqd.

The Thomson Reuters Journal Selection Process

 汤森路透集团的选刊过程

Thomson Reuters is committed to providing comprehensive coverage of the world's most important and influential journals to meet its subscribers' current awareness and retrospective information retrieval needs. Today Web of Science® covers over 9,000 international and regional journals and book series in every area of the natural sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

汤森路透致力于全面覆盖全世界最重要、最有影响的期刊，以满足订户对最新文献和当前信息和回顾性信息的检索需要。目前，Web of Science®收录了自然科学、社会科学、艺术、人文学科等各领域共9000种国际性和地区性期刊和连续出版的图书。

But comprehensive does not necessarily mean all-inclusive.

 但是，全面并不一定意味着将所有期刊全部囊括其中。

Why Be Selective?*

 为什么要进行选择性的收录呢？

It would appear that, in order to be comprehensive, an index to scientific journal literature might be expected to cover all the scientific journals published. This approach would be not only impractical economically, but as analyses of the scientific literature have shown, unnecessary. It has been demonstrated that a relatively small number of journals publish the bulk of significant scientific results. This principle is often referred to as Bradford's Law. 2

 为了显示综合性,科技期刊文献的索引好像应该将所有已出版的科技期刊皆囊括其中。这种方法不仅从经济上讲不可行,而且从科学文献分析来看也没有必要。有结果显示，重要的科学结果仅在相对少量的期刊上发表。这个原则常常被称为布拉德定律。

In the mid-1930's S. C. Bradford realized that the core literature for any given scientific discipline was composed of fewer than 1,000 journals. Of these 1,000 journals, there are relatively few with a very strong relevance to the given topic, whereas there are many with a weaker relevance to it. Those with a weak relevance to the given discipline or topic, however, typically have a strong relevance to some other discipline. Thus, the core scientific literature can form itself around various topics, with individual journals becoming more or less relevant depending on the topic. Bradford understood that an essential core of journals forms the literature basis for all disciplines, and that most of the important papers are published in relatively few journals.3

  20世纪30年代，布拉德意识到某一特定学科的核心文献只由不到1000种期刊组成，只有相对较少的期刊与某一主题具有强烈的相关性，而很多期刊与特定学科或者主题只具有弱相关性。然而，一些与某一学科或者主题只具有弱相关性的期刊，与其它学科又具有强相关性。因此，围绕各个主题会形成相应的核心科学文献。布拉德明白了，一些核心科学期刊形成了所有学科的文献基础，大多数重要的论文只发表在相较较少的期刊上。

l In order to evaluate a journal for possible coverage we must receive at minimum three consecutive current issues, one at a time as they are published, and/or free electronic access to the publication. Send print issues to Publication Processing, 1500 Spring Garden Street, Fourth Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19130, USA.)

  *要评价某一期刊的可能覆盖率，我们必须接收至少连续3期的近期期刊，这些期刊是已经出版的，或者其电子版能够免费访问。请将印刷版寄到以下地址：Publication Processing, 1500 Spring Garden Street, Fourth Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19130, USA.

  More recently, an analysis of 7,528 journals covered in the 2005 JCR® revealed that as few as 300 journals account for more than 50% of what is cited and more than 25% of what is published in them. A core of 3,000 of these journals accounts for about 75% of published articles and over 90% of cited articles. Furthermore, this core is not static. Its basic composition changes constantly reflecting the evolution of scholarly topics. Our mission is to update journal coverage in Web of Science by identifying and evaluating promising new journals, and deleting journals that have become less useful.

 我们最近对2005年SCI收录的7528种期刊进行分析显示，300种期刊的引文频次占所有SCI期刊总被引频次的50%以上，占所有出版物总引频次的25%。3000种核心期刊的被引频次占发表论文的75%左右，占被引论文的90%。而且，这种核心并不是静态的，其基本组成在不断发生变化，反映了学术主题的不断演进。我们的使命是通过甑别和评判有前景的新刊，剔除用处较小的期刊，使Web of Science 的期刊收录得以更新。

The Evaluation Process

期刊的评价过程

Journal evaluation and selection is ongoing at Thomson Reuters with journals added to and deleted from the database as frequently as every two weeks. Each year, Thomson Reuter's editorial staff reviews over 2,000 journal titles, and selects around 10-12% of the journals evaluated for inclusion in the Thomson Reuters database. Moreover, existing journal coverage in Thomson Reuters products is constantly under review. Journals now covered are monitored to ensure that they are maintaining high standards and a clear relevance to the products in which they are covered. The journal selection process described here is applied to all journals in Web of Science®, whether covered in Science Citation Index Expanded™, Social Sciences Citation Index®, or Arts & Humanities Citation Index®. Some special consideration is given in the evaluation of social science and arts & humanities journals, particularly with regard to citation analysis. These considerations are noted below.

  汤森路透对期刊的评估和筛选一直在进行,常常每两周进行一次期刊的增减工作.每年汤森路透的编辑部工作人员会审读2000多种期刊的题目,然后挑选大约10-12%的期刊加入到汤森路透数据库中,同时,对已收录到数据库的期刊进行监督,确保这些期刊仍然保持在高标准水平,并且与它们所涵盖的产品具有明确的相关性.此文描述的选刊过程适用于Web of Sciencer中的所有期刊,即SCI、SCI-E， SSCI， A&HCI所收录的期刊。在评价社会科学和艺术与人文期刊时，会有一些特殊的考虑，特别是在引文分析方面。下面将对评刊要考虑的因素加以说明。

Many factors are taken into account when evaluating journals for coverage, ranging from the qualitative to the quantitative. The journal's basic publishing standards, its editorial content, the international diversity of its authorship, and the citation data associated with it are all considered. No one factor is considered in isolation, but by combining and interrelating the data, the editor is able to determine the journal's overall strengths and weaknesses.

The Thomson Reuters editors performing journal evaluations have educational backgrounds relevant to their areas of responsibility as well as experience and education in information science.

Basic Journal Standards 期刊的基本标准

Timeliness of publication is a basic criterion in the evaluation process.

出版的及时性是评价一个期刊的基本标准。

It is of primary importance. A journal must be publishing according to its stated frequency to be considered for initial inclusion in the Thomson Scientific database. The ability to publish on time implies a healthy backlog of manuscripts essential for ongoing viability. It is not acceptale for a journal to appear chronically late, weeks or months after its cover date.5 To measure timeliness we need to see three consecutive current issues, one after another, as soon as they are published.

Timeliness is also essential for electronic journals. If the e-journal is publishing distinct issues at a stated frequency, these issues should appear online in a timely manner.

However, when an e-journal publishes articles one at a time rather than collecting articles for release as an 'issue' we take a slightly different approach to measuring timeliness. In these cases the editors look for a steady flow of articles over several months time.

Thomson Reuters also notes whether or not the journal follows international editorial conventions

期刊是否遵循国际编辑惯例,

which optimize retrievability of source articles. These conventions include informative journal titles, fully descriptive article titles and abstracts, complete bibliographic information for all cited references, and full address information for every author.

这些国际惯例包括:具有情报信息的期刊名称，具有描述性的文章标题和摘要，所有参考文献具有完整的目录信息，每位作者具有完善的地址信息。

English is the universal language of science at this time in history. It is for this reason that Thomson Reuters focuses on journals that publish full text in English or at very least, their bibliographic information in English. There are many journals covered in Web of Science that publish only their bibliographic information in English with full text in another language. However, going forward, it is clear that the journals most important to the international research community will publish full text in English. This is especially true in the natural sciences. In addition, all journals must have cited references in the Roman alphabet.

 在历史上的这个时期,英语是全世界的通用语言。因为这个原因，汤森路透侧重于筛选那些全文以英文发表或者至少它们的书目信息（参考文献）是以英文发表的期刊。Web of Science中有很多期刊是以英语以外的其它语言发表的，只是它们的书目信息是采用的英语。但是，非常清楚的是，随着时间的推移，对国际学术界最重要的期刊将会采用全英文发表，在自然科学领域尤其如此。另外，所有期刊均必须附引用文献，引用文献采用Roman alphabet（？？）形式。

Application of the peer review process is another indication of journal standards and indicates overall quality of the research presented and the completeness of cited references.6 It is also recommended that, whenever possible, each article publish information on the funding source supporting the research presented.

Editorial Content编辑内容

As mentioned above, an essential core of scientific literature forms the basis for all scholarly disciplines. However, this core is not static--scientific research continues to give rise to specialized fields of studies, and new journals emerge as published research on new topics achieves critical mass. Thomson Reuters editors determine if the content of a journal under evaluation will enrich the database or if the topic is already adequately addressed in existing coverage.

With an enormous amount of citation data readily available to them, and their daily observation of virtually every new scholarly journal published, Thomson Reuters editors are well positioned to spot emerging topics and active fields in the literature.

International Diversity国际多性性

Thomson Reuters editors look for International Diversity among the contributing authors and the journal’s editors and Editorial Advisory Board members.

  汤姆森从作者、期刊编辑、编委会成员的组成几个方面看一个期刊的国际多样性。This is particularly important in journals targeting an international audience. Today’s scientific research takes place in a global context and an internationally diverse journal is more likely to have importance in the international community of researchers.

As the global distribution of Web of Science expands into virtually every region on earth, the importance of regional scholarship to our emerging regional user community also grows. Selection criteria for regional journals are the same as for international journals although citation analyses play a somewhat different role in the outcome. For example, the importance of the regional journal would be measured more in terms of the specificity of its content. Will it enrich our coverage of a particular subject or provide studies with a specific regional perspective?

Many excellent regional journals target a local rather than an international audience. Therefore, the emphasis on extensive international diversity is less than for internationally focused journals.

All regional journals selected must be publishing on time, have English-language bibliographic information (title, abstract, keywords), and be peer reviewed. Cited references must be in the Roman alphabet.

Citation Analysis引用分析

The Thomson Reuters evaluation process is unique in that Thomson Reuters editors have a wealth of citation data available to them. The importance of interpreting and understanding these data correctly cannot be emphasized too strongly. Using quantitative citation data to measure impact is meaningful only in the context of journals in the same general discipline. For example, smaller fields like crystallography do not generate as many articles or citations as do larger fields such as biotechnology or genetics. Likewise, in some areas, particularly in the arts and humanities, it may take a relatively long time for an article to attract a meaningful number of citations. But in other areas, such as the life sciences, it is not unusual for citations to accrue rapidly and peak after two or three years.7 These facts must be taken into consideration if citation data are to be used correctly.

Citation analyses takes place on at least two levels. We look for citations to the journal itself, as expressed by Impact Factor and/or total citations received. We also examine the citation record of the contributing authors, a useful study in evaluating new journals where a citation history at the journal level does not yet exist.

Likewise, established journals that are not covered are often re-evaluated. These journals can experience new growth in citation impact resulting from changes such as translation into English, change in editorial focus, change in Publisher, medium, etc.

Because Thomson Reuters captures all cited references from each of the 9,300 journals covered, citation information is available on journals not covered as well as those that are covered.

Self-citation rates are also taken into consideration. The self-cited rate relates a journal’s self-citations to the number of times it is cited by all journals, including itself. For example, journal X was cited 15,000 times by all journals, including the 2,000 times it cited itself. Its self-cited rate is 2/15 or 13.3%.

A high volume of self-citation is not unusual or unwarranted in journals that are leaders in a field because of the consistently high quality of the papers they publish, and/or because of the uniqueness or novelty of their subject matter. Ideally, authors reference the prior publications that are most relevant to their current results, independently of the source journal in which the work was published. However, there are journals where the observed rate of self-citation is a dominant influence in the total level of citation. For these journals, self-citation has the potential to distort the true role of the title as a participant in the literature of its subject. 8

Eighty per cent of all journals listed in the JCR Science Edition have self-citation rates less than or equal to 20%. This shows that self citation is quite normal for most journals and is expected. Significant deviation from this normal rate, however, prompts an examination by Thomson Reuters to determine if excessive self-citations are being used to artificially inflate the Impact Factor. If we determine that self-citations are being used improperly, the journal’s Impact Factor will not be published and the journal may be considered for deselection from the Web of Science.

Social Sciences 社会科学

All social science journals undergo the same thorough evaluation as journals in the natural sciences. Publishing standards, editorial content, international diversity, and citation data are all considered. Standard citation metrics are analyzed while keeping in mind that overall citation rates in the social sciences are generally lower than those in the natural sciences.

Regional studies have special importance in the social sciences as topics of local rather than global interest are often the subject of scholarly research.

Arts & Humanities艺术和人文

Publishing standards, including timeliness, are important in the evaluation of arts and humanities journals. Citations patterns in the arts and humanities, however, do not necessarily follow the same predictable pattern as citations to social sciences and natural sciences articles. In addition, arts and humanities journal articles frequently reference non-journal sources (e.g., books, musical compositions, works of art and literature). English-language text is not a requirement in some areas of A&H scholarship where the national focus of the study precludes the need for it; for example, research in regional literatures.

Electronic Journals电子期刊

As stated earlier, the basic mission of Thomson Reuters is to provide access to the world's most important and influential journals regardless of the media in which they are published.

Publishing Standards, Editorial Content, International Diversity, and Citation Analysis are all considered when evaluating a purely electronic journal.

Evaluating the timeliness of publication of an e-journal may require a somewhat different approach. If the e-journal is publishing distinct issues the Thomson Scientific editor looks for the appearance of these in a timely manner. However, when an e-journal publishes articles one at a time rather than collecting articles for release as an 'issue' the editor simply looks for a steady flow of articles over several months time.

The Format of Electronic Journals is extremely important to Thomson Reuters.电子期刊的格式对汤姆森路透集团十分重要 Following are a set of guidelines for Electronic Journal formats. Following these guidelines helps insure correct citation of articles and reduces the possibility of ambiguity in citation of articles.

Insure that it is easy to identify the following elements:

确保电子期刊中能够识别到以下元素：

• Journal Title 期刊名称 

• Year of publication 出版年份 

• Volume and/or Issue Number (if applicable) 出版卷期 

• Article Title 篇名 

• Page Number or Article Number (one or the other is required; article number should not be the DOI) If your journal has page numbers and article numbers, list them separately and not merged together. EXAMPLE: Art. #23, pp. 6-10 and not 23.6-23.10

   要求有页码或者文章编号（至少要有一样；文章编号不是DOI）。 如果期刊有页码和文章编号，要分别列出，不要混在一起,例如,文章 #23, pp. 6-10,而不是 23.6-23.10 。

• Authors names and addresses 作者姓名和地址 

• Label all article identifiers such as DOIs, PIIs and Article Numbers 对所有文章加注识别码，如DOI、PII、文章编号。 

• A complete table-of-contents for each issue that includes the page/article number for each article (unless journal is being published as single articles) 每一期有完整的目录，包括页码和每篇文章的文章编号（除非期刊以单篇文章发表） 

Labeling these identifiers in both source articles and in citations helps insure their proper use by those referencing the article and correct labeling by abstracting and indexing firms such as Thomson Reuters.

• Each article must be assigned a unique page number or article number (whichever numbering scheme is being used) within any one given issue. Additionally, article numbers must be unique within an entire volume number. If the same article numbers are repeated in each issue within a volume, ambiguities will result when citing the original article. A citation to V 20, art. 1, May 2002, (even when adding the author's name), would be difficult to find if V 20, art. 1 June 2002 also exists. Avoid duplication of article numbers. References to Your Electronic Journal. Instruct authors to include the following information when citing your e-journal

  每一期的每篇文章必须要有独立的页码或者文章编号。另外，在一卷内不能有相同的文章编号。如果在一卷中每一期都有相同的文章编号，在引用原文的时候就会造成混淆。

• Journal title (use one standard abbreviation for your journal; avoid acronyms that may be confused with other titles)

• Volume number (if applicable) 卷号 

• Issue Number (if applicable; within parenthesis) 期号（放括号内） 

• Page number and/or article number (clearly identifying the article number as such) 页码和/或文章编号 

• Year of publication 出版年 

How to Recommend Journals or submit a journal for evaluation

如何将期刊向汤姆森路透推荐期刊或者递交期刊进行评估

Thomson Reuters welcomes suggestions and recommendations for coverage. If you would like to recommend a journal for evaluation, please follow the links below and provide all necessary information as well as access to your journal either electronically or in print.

   汤森路透欢迎推荐或者建议期刊收录。如果你想推荐某刊，请根据下面两个链接中的要求提供所有必要的信息，并且提供获取该刊的路径，可以是电子版的，也可以是印刷版的。

Recommend a journal for coverage in Web of Science 向Web of Science 推荐期刊

Submit a journal for evaluation for Web of Science 向Web of Science 递交期刊

This essay was prepared by James Testa, Senior Director, Editorial Development, Thomson Rueters. Special thanks to Editorial Development staff members Katherine Junkins , Maureen Handel, Mariana Boletta, Ryan Joyce, Kathleen Michael, Rodney Chonka, Chang Liu, and Luisa Rojo for their critical reading and comments.  

1. Garfield, E., How ISI Selects Journals for Coverage: Quantitative and Qualitative Considerations. Current Contents, May 28, 1990.
2. Garfield, E., Citation Indexing (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979)
3. Ibid.
4. Garfield, E., The Significant Scientific Literature Appears in a Small Core of Journals. The Scientist V10 (17), Sept. 2, 1996.(http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/commentaries/tsv10(17)p13y090296.html)
5. Garfield, E., How ISI Selects Journals for Coverage: Quantitative and Qualitative Considerations. Current Contents, May 28, 1990.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. McVeigh, M., Journal Self – Citation in the Journal Citation Reports – Science Edition. 2002. http://thomsonreuters.com/business_units/scientific/free/essays/selfcitation2002/.

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