Journal of Informetrics 8 (2014) 340–348 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Informetrics j o ur na l ho me pag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/joi The use of the Percentage Rank Position index for comparative evaluation of journals Péter Vinkler ∗ Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1117 Budapest, Magyar Tud´ osok krt. 2, Hungary a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 4 November 2013 Received in revised form 3 January 2014 Accepted 7 January 2014 Available online 6 February 2014 Keywords: Citation rank Elite set Field differences Percentage Rank Position Eminence of journals a b s t r a c t In the present paper the Percentage Rank Position (PRP) index concluding from the principle of Similar Distribution of Information Impact in different fields of science (Vinkler, 2013), is suggested to assess journals in different research fields comparatively. The publications in the journals dedicated to a field are ranked by citation frequency, and the PRP-index of the papers in the elite set of the field is calculated. The PRP-index relates the citation rank number of the paper to the total number of papers in the corresponding set. The sum of the PRP-index of the elite papers in a journal, PRP(j,F) may represent the eminence of the journal in the field. The non-parametric and non-dimensional PRP(j,F) index of journals is believed to be comparable across fields. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In evaluative scientometrics the quantity of information produced by a scientist, team or published by a journal may be approximated by the corresponding number of journal papers, whereas the mean impact of information may be represented by the citation rate of the papers (Garfield, 1976). I am in the opinion that the “eminence” (significance, goodness, excellence, superiority, etc.) of journals should include both impact and quantity aspects. Consequently, complex indicators should be found representing both aspects of informa- tion in journals. The assessment of the impact of publications across fields involves great difficulties because of the bibliometric differences in the fields (Vinkler, 2010a). One of the solutions to the problem is the application of relative impact indices of BMV- type (i.e. Relative Citation Rate, RCR, Relative Subfield Citedness, RW, and “crown indicator”, CPP/FCSm) (Vinkler, 2012a). The calculation of these second-generation type indices results, however in averages. In contrast to this, several recently introduced methods prefer calculating indicators referring only to the “core” or “elite set” of publications within the total (e.g. Egghe, 2006; Glänzel & Thijs, 2011; Hirsch, 2005; Kosmulski, 2011, 2013; Vinkler, 2009, 2010b; Wagner & Leydesdorff, 2012). The aim of the present article is to extent the use of the Percentage Rank Position (PRP) indicator (Vinkler, 2013) to char- acterize the eminence of journals in different fields comparatively. The PRP-index of a publication within a set of publications can be calculated by Eq. (1). ∗ Tel.: +36 14381100. E-mail address: vinkler.peter@ttk.mta.hu 1751-1577/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2014.01.001