Two ARPHA-Powered Journals Receive Their First Scopus CiteScores

Caucasiana and Contributions to Entomology, two ARPHA-powered journals, received their first Scopus CiteScores

Two ARPHA-powered have each received their first ever Scopus CiteScore, a milestone that reflects not only their growing scholarly impact, but also the role that robust, modern publishing infrastructure can play in helping journals gain visibility and recognition in the global academic community. 

The Scopus CiteScore, traditionally announced in June, reflects citation rates over the past four full calendar years; the 2025 score draws on data from 2022 to 2025. Scopus also maintains the CiteScoreTracker, offering a monthly update incorporating citation data from the ongoing year.

Caucasiana

Homepage of the Caucasiana journal

Caucasiana has received an inaugural Scopus CiteScore of 1.7, marking a welcome milestone for this recently established journal.

Launched in 2022 through a collaboration between Ilia State University (Georgia) and Pensoft Publishers, Caucasiana is an international peer-reviewed, open-access, and free-of-charge online journal covering all research branches related to biodiversity in the Caucasus region and adjacent areas. The journal was established to widen and enhance biodiversity research and publishing in this poorly studied but richly biodiverse hotspot.

From its inception, the journal was built on the ARPHA Platform, giving it immediate access to a streamlined editorial workflow, wide indexation, and the infrastructure needed to grow its academic presence rapidly. 

Reflecting on the milestone, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Dr. Levan Mumladze shares: 

This is a remarkable achievement, and I was genuinely surprised that we managed to accomplish it in such a short time. Receiving our first Scopus metric has certainly boosted my motivation and confidence as Editor-in-Chief. This kind of recognition affirms that what we are doing is being done right – and that is a powerful motivator to press forward with even greater energy. I am confident that the progress we have made will translate into even stronger results.

Contributions to Entomology

Homepage of Contributions to Entomology journal

Contributions to Entomology has received its first Scopus CiteScore of 1.1, ranking in Q2 for History and Philosophy of Science, placing it in the upper 60th percentile for that category.

With roots going back to 1951, when it was founded as Beiträge zur Entomologie by the Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Contributions to Entomology has a long and distinguished history in entomological publishing. 

A peer-reviewed, open access journal of Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and an official publication of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für allgemeine und angewandte Entomologie (DGaaE), the journal has over the years published around 1,850 articles by 950 authors across six languages, covering insect systematics, taxonomy, phylogeny, zoogeography, faunistics, ecology, applied entomology, and the history of entomology. 

Publishing on ARPHA has brought this wealth of entomological knowledge into a modern, fully integrated publishing environment, maximising its discoverability and reach across more than 40 indexing services. 

Powered by ARPHA

Both journals are published on the ARPHA Platform, Pensoft’s self-developed end-to-end publishing solution that streamlines the entire editorial workflow –  from manuscript submission and peer review through to editing, publication, and archiving – ultimately making research easy for both people and machines to access, cite, and reuse.

ARPHA’s publishing services also include human-provided support and integrations with third-party providers, designed to maximise the reach and usability of scholarly knowledge. Both journals are archived in CLOCKSS, Zenodo, Portico, and Zendy, and indexed in more than 40 services, including Scopus, CrossRef, DOAJ, and ResearchGate.

The latest Scopus CiteScore and CiteScoreTracker are automatically displayed on each journal’s homepage and in its newsletter.

First Journal Impact Factor for Frontiers of Biogeography

Led by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Robert J. Whittaker, Frontiers of Biogeography aims to advance public understanding of biogeographical sciences.

Frontiers of Biogeography, the official journal of The International Biogeography Society (TIBS), has received its first Journal Impact Factor (JIF) from Clarivate’s Web of Science. Its 2024 JIF stands at 2.5, highlighting the journal’s impact and relevance to the academic community.

Logo featuring "First Impact Factor" alongside "Frontiers of Biogeography," with Pensoft and Clarivate Web of Science branding.

This milestone places Frontiers of Biogeography in the Q2 category in both of its assigned Web of Science categories, Ecology and Geography, Physical.

A key metric released by Clarivate, the 2024 Journal Impact Factor reflects the number of times content published in a specific journal during 2022 and 2023 was cited in the subsequent 2024. This total citation count is then divided by the number of “citable” articles (i.e., research and review articles) to estimate the JIF.

Prior to this inaugural JIF, Frontiers of Biogeography had already achieved notable recognition, including a Scopus CiteScore of 5.5, an all-time high for the journal and the latest rise in an upwards trend that dates from its inclusion in Scopus back in 2016. It is placed in the 79th percentile for Ecology and the 73rd percentile for Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, ranking in Q1 for both categories.

An illustration shows a woman in a green sweater holding orange blocks in front of a chart illustrating Scopus CiteScore metrics and data.

Established in 2009, Frontiers of Biogeography was recently relaunched on the ARPHA Platform, where it is co-published with Pensoft Publishers. The journal publishes studies on all geographical variations of life at all levels of organisation, adhering to rigorous academic standards and aiming to advance public understanding of biogeographical sciences. It is led by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Robert J. Whittaker and Deputy Editors-in-Chief Dr. Janet Franklin and Prof. Mark J. Costello.

Professor Robert J. Whittaker, Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers of Biogeography, expressed his enthusiasm for this achievement, stating, “When The International Biogeography Society launched Frontiers of Biogeography under the editorship of Joaquín Hortal in 2009, we had a vision of it becoming an adaptable, independent, society-owned journal with a distinctive place in the journal publishing landscape. The attainment of our first Clarivate Journal Impact Factor is testimony to the hard work by our past and present editors and reviewers, and to the quality and interest level of the work that our community has entrusted to the journal for publication.”

“Working together with the team at Pensoft we are confident that we can continue to grow the journal as a favoured venue for Open Access publication of cutting-edge biogeographical research,” he added.

Scopus CiteScore metrics integrated with Pensoft journals

Having long been indexed by the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature – Scopus, Pensoft journals published on the ARPHA journal publishing platform have now accommodated its latest handy products.

Both Scopus CiteScore and CiteScoreTracker have been integrated with journals published by Pensoft on ARPHA, so that evidence of their impact can be easily provided on a monthly, as well as yearly basis. The metrics are already visible on the homepages of 15 journals published by Pensoft.

Scopus calculates its CiteScore through a simple formula based on the average citations received per document.

The yearly CiteScore is how many times papers published in the previous three years with a single journal are cited in that particular year.

Meanwhile, the CiteScoreTracker provides an estimate on a monthly basis. Since the citation count builds up every month, it is still consistent with the complete year’s score, providing helpful information for a journal’s current performance. Furthermore, it ensures that journals which have only recently been indexed by Scopus are quick to receive their own CiteScore.

To provide an impact estimate as robust and reliable as possible, Scopus CiteScore relies on both the largest database of peer-reviewed literature, and inclusiveness of all publication types. While the latter is necessary in order to acknowledge the scientific value of all academic papers that have found their place in a scholarly journal, it also significantly reduces the risk of metrics manipulation.

To further illustrate the impact of Pensoft publications, a direct citation feed has recently been integrated that shows the number of Scopus citations for a particular publication. Accessible from a tab visible in each publication is a count of scholarly articles that have cited it in Scopus, in addition to previously integrated Crossref, Google Scholar and PubMed.

cited tab

 

“Integrating Scopus CiteScore and CiteScoreTracker with all Pensoft journals and potentially with all journals published on ARPHA is what I believe to be of great benefit to all our present and future users, readers and editorial team,” says Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev. “It is a fantastic way to keep a real-time track of our progress and impact in the scientific community.”

“We are delighted that Pensoft are including CiteScore metrics on their journal pages. They join a selection of early adopting publishers that recognise the need to provide their users with a range of indicators to better measure the impact of their journals,” says Chris James, Product Manager Research Metrics at Elsevier, who is responsible for CiteScore.