In keeping with routine practice, the major scientific journal rating services released their updates on impact factors and citations in June, affording us the opportunity to share fresh information with our readership on the articles published in Materiales de Construcción. For those of us involved with the journal on a daily basis, these data are like the marks awarded by experts exhaustively reviewing the work performed in the preceding year. (I’m unable to shake that sensation of having just sat a ‘final exam’.)

• InCites Journal Citation Reports (JCR)-Clarivate Analytics (formerly Web of Science)

Materiales de Construcción’s impact factor (IF) in the JCR 2018 listing was 1.886, up from 1.803 in JCR-2017. That value refers to the citations received in 2018 for articles published in 2016 and 2017. The 5 year IF now stands at 1.966. The IF values for the last 6 years are graphed in the figure below.

Further information on the data for Materiales de Construcción can be accessed on:

https://apps.clarivate.com/jif/home/?journal=MATER%20CONSTRUCC&editions=SCIE&year=2018&pssid=J2-fUM1cJjoOMzI2obxpH6JrPFq8o1J2wnOtU-u5GbbHfb24jhitbVuFzWf3mYpVTEchafSOPuwtDQnTXPEci9lRTZmHlRYCiTaqV-qBgNuLRjcgZrPm66fhjx2Fmwx3Dx3D-h9tQNJ9Nv4eh45yLvkdX3gx3Dx3D

According to the JCR website, in 2018 the articles published by the journal were cited 825 times, 16 % of which or 132 referred to articles appearing in 2016 or 2017. Ranking 31^st of 63 journals in the category ‘Construction and Building Technology’, Materiales de Construcción has firmly consolidated its Q2 status and its position as the first listed Spanish journal on the subject. In ‘Materials Science Interdisciplinary’ it sits comfortably in Q3, as 175^th of a total of 293 journals.

• CiteScore metrics (SCOPUS)

The new CiteScore IF for Materiales de Construcción, 1.94 (compared to 1.86 in 2017), is based on the sum of the citations received in 2018 for articles published in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Further information on the journal in this database is available on:

https://www.scopus.com/sources?sortField=citescore&sortDirection=desc&isHiddenField=false&field=idTitle&=Materiales+de+Construccion&idTitle=&idTitle=Materiales+de+Construccion%2317135&_openAccess=on&_countCheck=on&count=0&countField=documentsMin&_bestPercentile=on&_quartile=on&_quartile=on&_quartile=on&_quartile=on&_type=on&_type=on&_type=on&_type=on&year=2018&offset=&resultsPerPage=20

According to CiteScore data, the articles published in Materiales de Construcción in the three aforementioned years (2015-2017) received 208 citations in 2018. As the journal holds 47^th place of a total of 168 in ‘Building and Construction’, it stands in percentile 72, i.e., on the high end of Q2. It is the highest ranking Spanish journal on building and construction in this database also.

• SCIMAGO Journal Rank (SJR)

The new IF assigned to Materiales de Construcción by SJR is 0.821, down slightly from 2017 (0.903). For detailed data on citations in the last 7 years in this DB see

https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=17135&tip=sid&clean=0

Pursuant to that website, 20% of the citations were referenced in publications edited in other countries, and the self-citation rate was a very low 15 % (32 of the 208 total tallied by SCOPUS). The SJR ranks Materiales de Construcción in Q1, as 41^st of the 277 journals in ‘Building and Construction’ (again, ahead of all other Spanish journals on the subject). It holds 95^th place of 452 in the subject category ‘Mechanics of Materials’ (for a very high Q2 position and the first Spanish journal listed) and 136^th of 609 in ‘Materials Science Multidisciplinary’ (second quartile leader and first Spanish journal in the category).

Those IF and placement values attest to the aptness of the course charted and consistently followed by the Editorial and Advisory Boards and the journal’s management. For over a decade now Materiales has been listed, both nationally and internationally, among the most highly esteemed scientific journals in the field of building materials.

I wish to thank all those who work for Materiales de Construcción (Board members, Dr Mar Alonso and Eduardo Fernández), and in particular our authors and reviewers who contribute so essentially to the significance, quality and originality of the research published. Many thanks to all for your inestimable support.

Prof. Francisca Puertas

Editor-in-chief

Materiales de Construcción