Thomson Reuters announced two months ago the 2013 release of its Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the source of the annual Journal Impact Factors. In comparison to last year, there are no significant changes. Interestingly, however, most impact factors have slightly decreased. Furthermore, the impact factor of the only open-access journal in robotics considered in JCR, the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, has dropped to 0.497 from 0.821, despite its high level of self cites (43%). This year again, Meccanica and the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics rely on very high rates of self citation (43% and 38%, respectively). This basically means that their impact factors are probably artificially inflated by at least 20%.

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No, Newton’s cradle was not even on my list of candidates, nor any of the other toys on Michael Scott’s desk in NBC’s The Office. I don’t play with tin toy robots either, though I have a collection of miniature industrial robots. If you design serial or parallel robots, or if you simply love 3D geometry, then the following three desk toys are a must for your office (as is a 3D printer). Here are some exclusive background facts regarding my most favourite office toys, as well as some examples of how these educational toys can inspire engineers.

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Thomson Reuters announced last week the 2013 release of its Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the source of the annual Journal Impact Factors. In comparison to the last time I asked myself “Should we take journal impact factors seriously?,” there are generally no significant changes in the impact factors of the journals in the field of mechanisms and robotics. An interesting exception, though, is the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems (ARS Journal), whose 2012 impact factor is now a respectable 0.821. The ARS Journal is the only open-access journal in the field that is covered by the JCR. Does that mean that open-access journals have finally made it in our field?

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