OSA News

Optics Letters, Optics Express Top Rated Journals in 2004

July 12, 2005 ( Washington , DC )—The Optical Society of America is pleased to announce that two of its journals -- Optics Letters and Optics Express -- are the most heavily cited journals in optics, according to the 2004 Journal Citation Report ® , the Thomson Scientific rankings for journal citations. Based on impact factor, these two publications each received the highest rankings of all optics journals, with only two anthologies obtaining greater numbers. Optics Letters was the first ranked individual journal, followed by Optics Express . Thomson Scientific, a business of The Thomson Corporation, announces these rankings annually, and they serve as an industry standard in gauging the notability of research published in peer- reviewed journals.

Three other OSA-published journals also were ranked in the top fifteen overall. These include the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (12) and B (8) and Applied Optics (14). With the exception of the Journal of the Optical Society of America A, which remained unchanged in its position, each of the journal rankings increased compared to the 2003 report. The rankings in the optics category compare a total of 54 journals.

“OSA journals set the standard of excellence in the field of optics and photonics, and the ISI rankings verify their impact year after year,” said Bahaa Saleh, chair of the OSA Board of Editors. “From Optics Express , our pioneering open access journal launched just a few years ago, to Optics Letters , the established resource for industry and academia, OSA continuously produces peer-reviewed content that helps to forward research and development in the field. We are proud to produce such high-quality publications.”

The Journal Citation Report provides quantitative tools for ranking, evaluating, categorizing and comparing journals. Created by ISI ® , the impact factor is one of these tools; it is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period. The annual Journal Citation Report impact factor is a ratio between citations and recent citable items published. Thus, the impact factor of a journal is calculated by dividing the number of current year citations to the source items published in that journal during the previous two years.

These impact factor rankings have become an increasingly important tool for librarians and educators in the last several years as a way to differentiate between many journals on the same subject. The rankings are often used to select which journals to include in library collections and to assist in academic evaluation of researchers.

 About OSA

The Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together an international network of the industry's preeminent optics and photonics scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders. Representing 15,000 members from approximately 100 different countries, OSA promotes the worldwide generation, application and dissemination of optics and photonics knowledge through its meetings, events and journals. Since its founding in 1916, OSA member benefits, programming, publications, products and services have set the industry's standard of excellence. Additional information on OSA is available on the Society's Web site at www.osa.org. OSA is proud to be a part of the World Year of Physics, a celebration of physics and the 100 th anniversary of some of Einstein's greatest achievements. Optics is the branch of physics that studies the properties of light. For additional information on World Year of Physics, visit www.physics2005.org.

About The Thomson Corporation

The Thomson Corporation ( www.thomson.com ), with 2004 revenues of $8.10 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford , Conn. , Thomson has approximately 40,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

Thomson Scientific information solutions can be found at www.scientific.thomson.com and include, ISI Web of Knowledge SM ¾ facilitating discovery by offering seamless navigation to high-quality, multidisciplinary journal ( Web of Science â ), patent ( Derwent World Patents Index â ), and Web content, evaluation tools, and bibliographic management products ( EndNote â ); Thomson Pharma SM —an integrated information solution for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets; Delphion ® ¾ providing access to full-text patent documents from the world's leading patent authorities; Techstreet ¾ offering a wide variety of engineering codes and standards; BIOSIS Previews â ¾ the world's most comprehensive reference database for life science research; and Information Holdings Inc.—a leading provider of intellectual property and regulatory information products and services for professional end users in corporate and legal markets.