Semantic Werks

Given the kerfuffle over Elsevier (see Michael Nielsen’s summary of affairs), I thought it would be instructive to list the Elsevier titles which cover my field of software engineering and information systems, in case people wanted to decide for themselves whether to support this corporation with free labour.

I had some doubts about publishing this list and making my views known, since being on the editorial board for journals like these helps one’s CV. But then, at some point you have to decide whether the larger issues of open access and relevance are important to you. In any event, these venues are, I’m convinced, making it very difficult for academics like me to have meaningful impact on the practice of software engineering. If it will cost a reader 35$ to read my article, I might as well not bother. Which seems to be what the low impact factors are telling us, anyway. (I’m not sure why I linked to them …)

• Journal of Systems and Software – IF 1.277 – Editor Hans Van Vliet
• Science of Computer Programming – IF 1.282
• Information and Software Technology – IF 1.507 – Editor Claes Wohlin
• International Journal of Human Computer Studies – IF 1.600
• Advances in Engineering Software – IF 1.004
• Applied Computing and Informatics – no impact factor, run by the King Saud University (see Crooked Timber for more on Saudi universities).
• Data & Knowledge Engineering – IF 1.717
• Information and Management – IF 2.627
• Information Systems – IF 1.595
• International Journal of Human Computer Studies – IF 1.600