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Vadose Zone Journal
H-index 25

Vadose Zone Journal

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Earth Science 177 86 131 21
Environmental Sciences 262 82 113 20

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 230
Documents by Best Scientists*: 230
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 4
SCIMAGO H-index: 103
SCIMAGO SJR: 0.859
Impact Factor: 2.8

Overview

Top Research Topics at Vadose Zone Journal?

The topics of Soil science, Soil water, Hydrology, Water content and Vadose zone are the focal point of discussions in Vadose Zone Journal. In addition to Soil science research, it aims to explore topics under Infiltration (hydrology) and Geotechnical engineering. The work on Geotechnical engineering tackled in it brings together disciplines like Mechanics and Flow (psychology).

The journal holds forums on Soil water that merges themes from other disciplines such as Environmental chemistry, Saturation (chemistry) and Analytical chemistry. Hydrology studies presented in Vadose Zone Journal focus on topics such as Groundwater, Groundwater recharge, Evapotranspiration, Water table and Surface runoff. The concepts on Water content presented in the journal can also apply to other research fields, including Moisture, Ground-penetrating radar, Remote sensing and Reflectometry.

Research in Reflectometry tackled falls within the umbrella of Time domain. Studies on Vadose zone discussed in Vadose Zone Journal link to the field of Aquifer. The studies tackled, which mainly focus on Porous medium, apply to Capillary action as well.

  • Soil science (35.66%)
  • Soil water (32.71%)
  • Hydrology (24.47%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Development and Applications of the HYDRUS and STANMOD Software Packages and Related Codes (783 citations)
  • A Review of Advances in Dielectric and Electrical Conductivity Measurement in Soils Using Time Domain Reflectometry (693 citations)
  • Soil Moisture Measurement for Ecological and Hydrological Watershed-Scale Observatories: A Review (642 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Vadose Zone Journal:

The main points discussed in the journal publications deal with Soil water, Soil science, Water content, Hydrology and Vadose zone. Aside from discussions in Soil water, the most cited publications also deal with the subject of Geotechnical engineering which intersects with Mechanics disciplines. The published papers connects research in Soil science with the related topics of Infiltration (hydrology).

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Ecology
  • Statistics
  • World War II

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The journal focuses largely on the fields of Soil science, Hydrology, Soil water, Water content and Agronomy. Soil science research featured in the journal incorporates concerns from various other topics such as Infiltration (hydrology), Pore scale, Aquifer and Current (fluid). While it focused on Hydrology, it was also able to explore topics like Phosphorus, Lysimeter and Precipitation.

It facilitated discussions that integrated Soil water and EPIC. Vadose Zone Journal explores topics in Water content which can be helpful for research in disciplines like Structural basin, Cosmic ray, Evapotranspiration and Groundwater recharge. The journal covers research in Agronomy, particularly Tillage and DNS root zone and how they are related with concepts in Root (linguistics) and Variable (computer science).

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Dual-permeability modeling of preferential flow and snowmelt partitioning in frozen soils (4 citations)
  • Current understanding of subsurface transport of micro- and nanoplastics in soil (3 citations)
  • Prediction of soil evaporation measured with weighable lysimeters using the FAO Penman–Monteith method in combination with Richards’ equation (3 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Vadose Zone Journal (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Harry Vereecken (105 papers) published 4 papers at the last edition, 2 less than at the previous edition,
  • Jan Vanderborght (65 papers) published 4 papers at the last edition, 1 more than at the previous edition,
  • Per Moldrup (47 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Jirka Šimůnek (41 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Mathieu Javaux (34 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Vadose Zone Journal (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Agricultural Research Service (153 papers) published 7 papers at the last edition, 4 more than at the previous edition,
  • Forschungszentrum Jülich (145 papers) published 7 papers at the last edition, 2 less than at the previous edition,
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (87 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
  • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (75 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
  • University of Arizona (75 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 3.08% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 31.75% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 14.29% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 20.63% of all publications and 33.33% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • A global 1‐km downscaled SMAP soil moisture product based on thermal inertia theory

    (2022)
    89 Citations
  • Sensing the electrical properties of roots: A review

    Solomon Ehosioke;Frédéric Nguyen;Sathyanarayan Rao;Thomas Kremer

    (2020)
    88 Citations
  • Current understanding of subsurface transport of micro- and nanoplastics in soil

    Yingxue Yu;Markus Flury

    (2021)
    57 Citations
  • Geophysics conquering new territories: The rise of “agrogeophysics”

    Sarah Garré;David Hyndman;Benjamin Mary;Ulrike Werban

    (2021)
    45 Citations
  • Effect of freeze–thaw cycling on the soil-freezing characteristic curve of five Canadian soils

    Junping Ren;Sai K. Vanapalli

    (2020)
    42 Citations
  • Simulation of spatial variability in crop leaf area index and yield using agroecosystem modeling and geophysics-based quantitative soil information

    C. Brogi;J. A. Huisman;M. Herbst;L. Weihermüller

    (2020)
    39 Citations
  • Prediction of soil evaporation measured with weighable lysimeters using the FAO Penman–Monteith method in combination with Richards’ equation

    Jana Schneider;Jannis Groh;Thomas Pütz;Rainer Helmig

    (2021)
    38 Citations
  • Time-lapse geophysical assessment of agricultural practices on soil moisture dynamics

    Guillaume Blanchy;Guillaume Blanchy;Chris. W. Watts;Jake Richards;Jennifer Bussell;Jennifer Bussell

    (2020)
    36 Citations

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