Thomson Reuters has released their 2009 Journal Citation Report and we are happy to see that the Journal of Web Semantics impact factor has risen to 3.412, the fifth highest among the 116 journals in its category, “Computer Science, Information systems.” This is the highest impact factor score for the JWS to date.

Thomson Reuter’s journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The 2009 impact factor is computed as the citations received in 2009 from journals indexed by Thompson to all JWS articles published in 2007 and 2008, divided by the number of JWS “source items” published in 2007 and 2008.

Journal impact factors are not perfect measure of a journal’s quality, but are generally regarded as meaningful and, perhaps, the best objective measure we have. Our high ranking is a very good sign and a testament to the hard work of many people — area editors, editorial board, advisory board, reviewers, authors and especially Silke Werger, who runs the JWS editorial office. We thank everyone for all of the work — it’s made a difference.