Thomson Reuters announced two months ago the 2013 release of its Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the source of the annual Journal Impact Factors. In comparison to last year, there are no significant changes. Interestingly, however, most impact factors have slightly decreased. Furthermore, the impact factor of the only open-access journal in robotics considered in JCR, the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, has dropped to 0.497 from 0.821, despite its high level of self cites (43%). This year again, Meccanica and the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics rely on very high rates of self citation (43% and 38%, respectively). This basically means that their impact factors are probably artificially inflated by at least 20%.

Here is the list of journals that publish papers in the field of mechanisms and robotics with their 2013 (and 2012) impact factors, as well as the percentage of self-citations:

• International Journal of Robotics Research: 2.503 (2.863), 15% due to self-cites
• IEEE Transactions on Robotics: 2.649 (2.571), 7% due to self-cites
• Journal of Field Robotics: 1.880 (2.152), 15% due to self-cites
• Autonomous Robots: 1.750 (1.908), 6% due self-cites
• International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery: 1.532 (1.488), 14% due to self-cites
• Meccanica: 1.815 (1.747), 43% due to self-cites
• Precision Engineering: 1.403 (1.393), 10% due to self-cites
• Journal of Mechanical Design: 1.165 (1.247), 21% due to self-cites
• Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing: 1.839 (1.230), 13% due to self-cites
• Mechanism and Machine Theory: 1.310 (1.214), 22% due to self-cites
• Robotics and Autonomous Systems: 1.105 (1.156), 13% due to self-cites
• Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics: 0.863 (0.967), 38% due to self-cites
• Robotica: 0.894 (0.880), 17% due to self-cites
• Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems: 0.810 (0.827), 24% due to self-cites
• International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems: 0.497 (0.821), 43% due to self-cites
• Industrial Robot: 0.622 (0.690), 18% due to self-cites
• Advanced Robotics: 0.562 (0.510), 11% due to self-cites

Lastly, I am very proud that the Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (TCSME), for which I act as the managing editor, continues to enjoy increased attention. Its 2013 impact factor is 0.460, and only 3% of all citations taken into account in calculating it come from papers published in TCSME. Next time you wonder where to publish your robotics paper, why not consider TCSME? We are non-for-profit and run mostly on voluntary basis. But if you think it’s easier to get your robotics paper accepted, you are wrong.