Chemical Sciences at the AABC

Abstract

In order to gain some perception on how articles of different fi elds are contributing to the bibliometric indicators of the Annals of Brazilian Academy of Sciences (AABC), I have started to make some very general analyses of the papers submitted to this journal, using, among others, the Impact Factor (IF) of 2018 (AABC IF-2018). I have started with Agrarian Sciences (Kellner 2020a) and gradually expanded to other areas (Kellner 2020b, c, d). Despite of the criticisms and the growing use of alternative bibliometric indices (e.g., Villaseñor-Almaraz et al. 2019), the IF is still the most applied bibliometric index regarding scientifi c publications and infl uences the production of science, including the choice of journals to which researchers tend to submit their manuscripts.Taking the opportunity of the publication of this special volume on the disaster caused by the oil spill that has affected the Northeast coast of Brazil in 2019 (Andrade & Coutinho 2022), I am providing a brief overview of the contribution of Chemical Sciences (ChSci) to the AABC. Despite being one of the most traditional areas of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the number of papers received by the AABC concerning this scientifi c fi eld is still low. From 2011 to 2020, a total of 402 manuscripts in ChSci were submitted to this journal, about 40 papers per year, representing 4.46% of the total number (9009) of the manuscripts received (Figure 1). In the same period, 12 to 13 were published per year (total 128), representing 6.05% of all published articles (total 2117). The year with the most publications regarding ChSci was 2018, with 41 papers, which included two special issues, making this area the greatest contributor to the 2019 Impact Factor (AABC IF-2019 -1.280, Kellner 2020c.In 2019 and 2020, 29 papers were published in ChSci making up about 4.45% of the printed articles (651). In these two years, the submissions concerning this scientifi c fi eld (113) represented about 3.33% of the total submissions (3392). All published articles were retrieved by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and therefore the Missing Article Index (MAI, see Kellner 2020b) considering this area during this time span is zero.Of the 16 articles published in 2019 considered in the AABC IF-2021 (1.811), 12 were cited at least once in 2021, resulting in an Article Citation Factor (ACF 2019/2021, see Kellner 2020a) of 0.7500 (Table I). Of the 13 articles published in 2020 considered in the AABC IF-2021, only six were cited once in 2021, resulting in an ACF 2020/2021 index of 0.4615. The combined ACF 2019-2020/2021 is 0.6207 (Table I). This means that almost 40% of the articles published in 2019 and 2020 did not receive even one citation in 2021. Both, combined and individual ACFs have decreased compared to the values found regarding the contribution of the articles of ChSci published in 2018 to the AABC IF-2019 (Kellner