The journal Temperature is in the top 10 journals in both Physiology and Medical Physiology, as determined by the 2022 Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)

In my last editorial about the performance of the journal Temperature [1], I wrote that the most important function of a journal is to ensure that the articles it publishes are widely used by researchers. If an article is widely used by researchers in their work, it becomes well-cited. From this point of view, the number of citations received by articles published in a certain journal can be viewed as a quality measure of the services provided by this journal to its authors and readers. I then used data from Scopus and SCImago to compare how articles published by Temperature are rewarded with citations, as compared to articles published by Temperature’s peers. Based on several criteria [1], the following group of peer journals was selected: Acta Physiologica; American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology; Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism; European Journal of Applied Physiology; Journal of Applied Physiology; Journal of Physiology; Pflüger’s Archiv – European Journal of Physiology; Physiological Reports; Experimental Physiology; and PLoS One.

Several performance indicators for 2019 and 2020 analyzed in that editorial [1] showed that Temperature was among the leaders in this group of journals, especially when the Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) was used. SNIP, according to the Elsevier website, is a more “sophisticated metric that intrinsically accounts for field-specific differences in citation practices. It does so by comparing each journal’s citations per publication with the citation potential of its field, defined as the set of publications citing that journal. SNIP, therefore, measures contextual citation impact and enables direct comparison of journals in different subject fields, since the value of a single citation is greater for journals in fields where citations are less likely, and vice versa.” When SNIP was used, Temperature outperformed all its peers in 2019 and all its peers but one (Acta Physiologica) in 2020.

Over the last two years, Temperature continued leading its field. In fact, with the 2022 SNIP of 2.230 (released in June of 2023), Temperature has confidently surpassed all its peers and is currently the ninth top journal of all journals listed by Scopus in the category Physiology (Table 1) and the eighth top journal of all journals in Medical Physiology (Table 2). None of the journals that were identified as Temperature’s peers [1] are in the top 10 (or top 20) journals in either Physiology or Medical Physiology, as determined by SNIP. It is certainly true that Temperature does not make the top 10 list if other indices of journal performance (or those of journal prestige; see Ref. 1) are used. But SNIP was specifically designed to compare the performance of journals publishing on different subjects. And the fact that, according to this index (or any index!), Temperature shares the same list as the “big guys” dominating Tables 1 and 2 makes me, as the founding Editor-in-Chief, proud. This achievement is possible due to the support that Temperature has been receiving from the research community. I would like to express my deep gratitude to all authors, reviewers, and editors of the journal Temperature. Temperature’s performance is the result of their hard work and the clear evidence of their brilliance. I am proud to lead the journal that is privileged to have such strong support.

Table 1.

Top 10 journals in Physiology, as ranked by 2022 SNIP.

Journal	SNIP	Rank
Physiological Reviews	11.448	1
Annual Review of Plant Biology	5.879	2
Cell Metabolism	4.686	3
Annual Review of Physiology	4.535	4
Circulation Research	3.534	5
Bone Research	2.843	6
New Phytologist	2.490	7
Comprehensive Physiology	2.386	8
Temperature	2.230	9
Physiology	2.212	10

Note: *All data used in this table and in Table 2 were retrieved from the Scopus website on June 10, 2023; ranking was performed by Scopus.

Table 2.

Top 10 journals in Medical Physiology, as ranked by 2022 SNIP.

Journal	SNIP	Rank
Physiological Reviews	11.448	1
Circulation	6.144	2
Sleep Medicine Reviews	3.505	3
Nature Metabolism	3.275	4
Comprehensive Physiology	2.386	5
Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology	2.330	6
Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle	2.243	7
Temperature	2.230	8
JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology	2.169	9
Heart Rhythm	2.025	10

To make my message precise, I used a long and rather technical title for the present editorial. As for the editorial itself, I want to keep it short and sweet: let the data speak!