The University of Colorado at Boulder's journal of Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research has been ranked the No. 1 geography journal in the world for its impact and citation by the prestigious Institute of Scientific Information.
The ranking is for the journal's 1999 publications, which are the latest rankings released by the Washington, D.C., based institute, according to CU-Boulder's Kathleen Salzberg, managing editor of the journal.
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research is a quarterly publication of the university's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. It contains refereed articles submitted by researchers from all over the world.
The journal's rank is based on its impact factor, which is a ratio of recent article citations to recent article publications in comparison to 22 other geography journals, Salzberg said. "The rank is basically an indication of how prominent a journal is within the field."
According to Salzberg, the publication has already seen the effects of its increased prominence.
"In the year 2000 we experienced a 33 percent increase in manuscript submissions in comparison to 1999," she said. "The increase forces us to be more selective about the quality of articles we use, which improves the overall quality of the journal."
In addition, Salzberg said the publication receives many manuscripts from outside of the United States. "The number of articles we receive from around the world really demonstrates how broad our scope is," she said.
In 2000, 81 percent of articles submitted to the magazine and 61 percent of those published were from authors outside of the United States.
The journal's rank in the geography field has increased throughout the years. "We were ranked seventh in 1997 and second in 1998, so we have slowly been creeping up," Salzberg said.
The Institute also ranked the INSTAAR journal 26th of 126 environmental publications. "In 1997 we were ranked 46 in the environmental category and in 1998 we were ranked 38, so we also have seen a steady increase in that category," she said.