You are absolutely correct.
However, there is absolutely no guarantee that any journal will be
included in ISI regardless of what benchmarks it meets.  THIS is the
problem with ISI, it is not completely objective.

Here is the process abbreviated:

1) SUBMIT JOURNAL TO ISIS
2) WAIT 2 YEARS TO BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR MONITORING.
3) THE NEXT THREE ISSUES MUST BE SUBMITTED FOR EVALUATION
4) CONTINUE SUBMITTING ISSUES FOR EVALUATION.
5) WHEN ISI DECIDES TO INCLUDE YOUR JOURNAL, IT GETS INCLUDED.

The precise standards used ARE NOT public.
The methodology that is public IS NOT guaranteed.
Whether or not you get included can be due to such fickle details as
"what country is your journal addressed to"

To be a fair and unbiased assessment tool, there should be specific
standards that if met lead to inclusion.  This is not the case.

With our journal we are now in our 4th year.  According to ISI we have
done everything right.
However, we are still waiting.  We qualify, but they are still
deciding based on metrics that we are not provided so we cannot ensure
we meet them.

Off the top of my head, these are the things ISI encourages to get included:
1) the journal is regular (no late issues)
2) the journal has an international editorial board
3) the journal has a standard review system (one of the many kinds of
peer or editorial review).

Technically, if you read the volumes of white papers ISI puts out, I'm
not convinced that ISI is actually looking at quality as much as which
markets it will enter by accepting or rejecting a journal.  Monitoring
a journal = $$$  and accepting a journal from Nepal is going to open a
market for their product/s whereas accepting another US journal does
little to improve their income.  This is a for-profit venture.  This
must be considered when evaluating journals and faculty!!!

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Thiago Silva <[email protected]> wrote:
> As far as I know, journals have to "apply" in order to be indexed by ISI,
> and even so there is a selection process before it can be considered an "ISI
> journal". Since it is ISI who calculates impact factors, all journals that
> are not indexed by it live in the same black hole.
>
> More info here:
> http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/free/essays/journal_selection_process/
>
> Best,
>
> Thiago Sanna Freire Silva
>
> PhD - Geography
> MSc - Remote Sensing
> BSc(Hons) - Biology
>
> Sessional Instructor
> Department of Geography
> University of Victoria
>
> [email protected]
>
> www.thiagosilva.wordpress.com
>
>
>
>
> Thomas Shannon wrote:
>>
>> Hilit,
>>
>> It would appear as though you've discovered an academic black hole. Not
>> only
>> is it seemingly impossible to find an impact factor for this journal, but
>> the ISI Web of Science search engine neither recognizes the journal nor
>> any
>> of the papers published in the journal all the way back to the late 90's.
>>
>> You may need to email Springer (the publisher). It would be interesting to
>> find out why they are not searched by ISI.
>>
>>
>>
>



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