Analysing impact factors and other bibliometric indexes to assess the diffusion of six Spanish psychology and education journals .

A bibliometric indexes analysis, as those used by the ISI, is undertaken in 6 Spanish psychology and education journals Infancia y Aprendizaje, Cultura y Educacin, Anuario de Psicologa, Estudios de Psicologa, Cognitiva and Revista de Educacin over a total of 42 source journals published in 2003, involving a documental sample of 146 issues. The aim is to show the feasibility and usefulness of these indexes as diffusion indicators and, in part, also as quality indicators, even though the use of other more complex indicators (e.g., content analysis, or communication and publishing processes) is necessary. The data show that these six focal journals published in 2003 received a total of 551 references. Infancia y Aprendizaje received the most references (143) followed by the Revista de Educacin with 128, and Cognitiva with 89, however the number of papers per year that these journals publish is different. The immediate index obtained is very high for Cognitiva (3.32) and high for Infancia y Aprendizaje (0.79). The impact factor is important in Estudios de Psicologa (0.37) and in Infancia y Aprendizaje (0.32), relative important in Cultura y Educacin (0.24), and moderate in Revista de Educacin (0.15), etc. However, when evaluating "current" impact these figures increase to 1.97 for Cognitiva, 0.59 for Infancia y Aprendizaje or 0.42 for Estudios de Psicologa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]