Effect of international collaboration on Journal Impact Factor, citation, and Field-Weighted Citation Impact of published research papers from faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai University, between year 2010 to 2019

Abstract

Objectives To study the effect of international collaboration on Journal Impact Factor (JIF), citation, and Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of published research studies from each individual department within faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai University.

Methods This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. All the included research studies were published between 2010 to 2019. The studies were extracted from Scopus. JIF, citation, and FWCI of each research study were also extracted.

Results Number of the research studies was 3,571 with median JIF, median citation, and median FWCI of 2.27, 5.00, and 0.68, respectively. 1,492 studies had international collaboration (41.78%) which were found to had higher in median JIF, higher median citation, and higher median FWCI compare to studies without international collaboration (2.78 vs 1.91 p < 0.001, 7 vs 4 p < 0.001, 0.96 vs 0.55 p < 0.001, respectively). When divided the studies into different departments, almost all departments have higher value of median JIF or median citation or median FWCI in group of studies with international collaboration compare to group without the collaboration. Positive correlations between JIF and citation, and between JIF and FWCI are observed. These positive correlations seem to be higher in group with international collaboration comparing to the group without the collaboration

Conclusions Publishing research studies with international collaboration may increase JIF, number of citation, and FWCI. There are other factors effecting these parameters but encouraging international collaboration may be a good strategy to improve quality of research studies in faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai University.