EGU journals, published by Copernicus Publications, now display the most recent Thomson Reuters Impact Factors (IFs). The new IFs correspond to 2015 and were published in Monday’s release of Journal Citation Reports. After having been indexed in Web of Science last year, Earth Surface Dynamics (ESurf) and Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems (GI) have now received their first impact factors: IF 2.000 and IF 1.071, respectively. All but two of EGU’s 17 open access journals now have an impact factor.

Among EGU journals, Earth System Dynamics (ESD, IF 4.589) saw the most pronounced increase in its impact factor in the past year. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS, IF 2.277) and Ocean Science (OS, IF 2.985) also registered important increases in their impact factors.

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP) is the highest ranked EGU journal, with IF 5.114, a slight increase since last year. The journal is the sixth ranked publication in ‘Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences’, while Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS, IF 3.990) is the fourth journal with the highest impact factor in ‘Water Resources’. The Cryosphere (TC, IF 4.906) is in second place in the ‘Geography, Physical’ category, and seventh in ‘Geosciences Multidisciplinary’.

A journal impact factor is calculated by dividing the number of citations its articles received in a given year (2015 in this case) by the total number of articles published in the previous two years (2014 and 2013). For example, for ESurf, the citations in 2015 to items published in 2014 (72) and 2013 (18) totaled 90. Since the number of published papers was 45 (39 in 2014 and 6 in 2013), this gives an IF of 90/45=2.000, an excellent IF for such a young journal.

We are grateful to all authors, reviewers and editors of EGU’s open access journals for their invaluable help in increasing the impact of EGU publications and making them a success.

• EGU open access journals
• First Impact Factor for ESurf