Evaluating journals performance over time using functional instruments

In recent years, scientific research has become a business for many actors involved, particularly for journals’ publishers. Therefore, there is a great increase in those studies looking for advanced methods for evaluating the impact of scientific journals in various scientific communities. Most of the indicators used in the literature for this purpose are very simple indexes, such as the number of citations, number of articles, SCImago Journal Rank, and h-index. In this research, we suggest the use of functional data analysis to obtain new advanced statistical indicators starting from the classical bibliometric indexes. Specifically, we will show through an application to real data how to use functional data analysis to add interesting insights via the analysis of classical bibliometric indexes