Comparing journals by the measure of its impact dispersion

Abstract

The present study aims at demonstrating the application of an algorithm to measure the impact dispersion of journals over a referential publication group. Fourteen national Brazilian? nursing journals were used as the example object. They were classified according to the correspondent index of segmental dispersion – ISD, considering different distribution levels of the impacted units. In this example, which incorporate journals with expressive differences as for the number of received citations, ISD varied from 0.005 to 4.810. The impact dispersion is interpreted as a condition that involves the continued diffusion of the cited unity.