Top Journals for Scientometric and Informetric Research

If you want to track where scientometric and informetric research actually happens, you need to know the journals. These periodicals are where new citation indicators are proposed, where mapping techniques are tested, and where debates about measuring science play out. For a student or early researcher, knowing the core publications is the fastest way to understand the field’s intellectual landscape. This guide walks through the leading print journals, the digital and open-access platforms that widened access, and the specialised resources every researcher should keep on their radar.

Leading journals in the field 🔗

A handful of journals define the mainstream of scientometric research. They set methodological standards, publish the most-cited indicators, and shape what counts as a serious contribution. Three names appear again and again in any reading list.

Scientometrics 🔗

If there is one flagship journal in the field, it is Scientometrics. It was established in 1978, and its founding editor-in-chief was Tibor Braun. The journal is now published by Springer in association with Akadémiai Kiadó, and it carries the same name as the discipline itself, which tells you how central it is.

The journal is international, peer-reviewed, and appears monthly. It publishes original research on all quantitative aspects of the production, communication, and use of scientific and technological information, and it welcomes both theoretical and empirical studies. Many of the tools researchers use every day were introduced or refined in its pages. The software VOSviewer, for instance, was presented in a paper describing a program for constructing and viewing bibliometric maps that has since been cited tens of thousands of times. For research workers, research administrators, and librarians alike, this is the journal to read first.

Research Policy 🔗

Research Policy sits slightly to the side of pure scientometrics, but it is impossible to ignore. It was established in 1971 by the British economist Christopher Freeman and is published by Elsevier on behalf of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. It is widely regarded as the leading journal in innovation studies.

Why does it matter for scientometrics? Because much scientometric work is ultimately about policy: how research funding translates into output, how innovation systems perform, and how science and technology indicators inform decisions. Research Policy is a multi-disciplinary journal devoted to the economic, policy, management, and organisational challenges posed by innovation, technology, R&D, and science. Its scope explicitly covers science, technology, R&D, and innovation indicators, which is precisely where scientometric methods meet real-world decision-making. The journal carries a high impact factor for a social science publication, reflecting its influence.

Journal of Informetrics 🔗

The Journal of Informetrics is the youngest of the three but has quickly become essential. It was established in 2007 by Leo Egghe and is published by Elsevier. Where Scientometrics is broad, this journal is focused on the theoretical and methodological core of the field.

It publishes rigorous research on quantitative aspects of information science, with a main focus on bibliometrics, scientometrics, webometrics, patentometrics, altmetrics, and research evaluation. One distinctive feature is its editorial standard: the journal generally does not accept simple case studies, such as a bibliometric analysis of one country or field, unless they contain genuinely innovative methodological elements. That makes it the place to look for new indicators, mathematical models, and the informetric laws, including the well-known patterns associated with Lotka, Zipf, and Bradford, that underpin the whole field.

Digital and open access publications 🔗

For decades, access to scientometric research meant access to expensive subscription journals. That created a real barrier for students and researchers, especially those at institutions without large library budgets. The growth of electronic journals and open-access platforms changed this picture significantly.

The shift to electronic publishing 🔗

The field was actually an early mover. Because scientometrics studies scholarly communication, its own researchers were quick to experiment with new publishing models. Open-access and electronic journals now make a large share of scientometric and informetric work freely available, lowering the barrier for anyone wanting to learn the methods or build on existing studies.

This matters for accessibility in a direct way. A student can now read recent methodological papers, replicate analyses, and follow current debates without needing a subscription. Several open-access journals dedicated specifically to scientometrics have emerged, including titles published by universities that run scientometrics programmes, making the research base genuinely global rather than concentrated in a few well-funded centres.

Newsletters and informal channels 🔗

Alongside formal journals, the field has long relied on lighter-weight publications such as bibliometric newsletters and notes. These shorter periodicals circulate emerging ideas, conference summaries, software announcements, and community news faster than a peer-reviewed journal can. For someone new to the field, these informal channels are a useful way to keep up with what researchers are discussing right now, before it appears in a formal article months or years later. They complement the major journals rather than competing with them.

Key resources for researchers 🔗

Beyond the headline journals, a few specialised resources deserve a permanent place in any researcher’s toolkit. These are the publications that focus on niche but important corners of the field, particularly the study of science on the web and the use of metrics for decision-making.

Cybermetrics 🔗

Cybermetrics deserves special mention as a pioneer. Its full title is Cybermetrics: International Journal of Scientometrics, Informetrics and Bibliometrics, and it was both an electronic journal and a virtual forum dedicated to the quantitative analysis of scholarly and scientific communication on the Internet.

It holds an important place in the field’s history. The electronic journal Cybermetrics, covering primarily webometric research, was founded in 1997, at a time when studying science on the web was a brand-new idea. As an open-access e-journal, it made this emerging research freely available to a worldwide audience of researchers. For anyone interested in webometrics, the study of links, web pages, and online scholarly activity, Cybermetrics is a foundational reference point that shows how the field expanded from counting citations in print to measuring science across the entire web.

International Journal of Information Science for Decision Making 🔗

The International Journal of Information Science for Decision Making represents another useful corner of the field. As its name suggests, it connects information science methods, including scientometric and informetric techniques, to practical decision-making. This is an applied angle that students sometimes overlook.

The value here is the bridge between measurement and application. Scientometric indicators are not just academic curiosities; they feed into research evaluation, competitive intelligence, technology monitoring, and strategic planning. A journal focused on information science for decision-making shows how the same citation counts and mapping techniques discussed in Scientometrics or the Journal of Informetrics get put to work in organisational and policy contexts. For a researcher who wants to understand why these metrics matter beyond the academy, resources like this one are worth seeking out.

How to use these resources together 🔗

The smartest approach is to treat these publications as a connected system rather than a list. Start with Scientometrics for the broad picture and the most-cited empirical work. Turn to the Journal of Informetrics when you need the underlying theory and new methods. Read Research Policy to see how findings connect to innovation and policy. Use Cybermetrics and webometric sources when your interest moves to the web. And keep an eye on open-access journals and newsletters to stay current without hitting a paywall.

One practical tip: many of these journals are indexed in major databases, so you can track citation patterns across them and see how ideas travel from one publication to another. That habit, reading the field’s own communication network, is itself a small scientometric exercise and an excellent way to learn how the discipline works from the inside.

What do you think? Which of these journals would be most useful for the kind of research you want to do, and do you think open-access publishing will eventually replace subscription journals as the main home for scientometric research?

References

1. https://link.springer.com/journal/11192
2. https://scispace.com/journals/scientometrics-2tg5e852
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Policy_(journal)
4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/research-policy
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Informetrics
6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-informetrics
7. http://cchs.csic.es/en/webpage/cybermetrics-international-journal-scientometrics-informetrics-bibliometrics
8. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1209.3406