Performance Analysis of Random Forest on Quartile Classification Journal

Abstract

Journals play a pivotal role in disseminating scientific knowledge, housing a multitude of valuable research articles. In this digital age, the evaluation of journals and their quality is essential. The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) stands as one of the prominent platforms for ranking journals, categorizing them into five index classes: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and NQ. Determining these index classes often relies on classification methodologies. This research, drawing inspiration from the Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM), seeks to employ the Random Forest method to classify journals, thus contributing to the refinement of journal ranking processes. Random Forest stands out as a robust choice due to its remarkable ability to mitigate overfitting, a common challenge in machine learning classification tasks. In the context of approximating SJR index classes, Random Forest, when utilizing the Gini index, exhibits promise, albeit with an initial accuracy rate of 62.12%. The Gini index, an impurity measure, enables Random Forest to make informed decisions while classifying journals into their respective SJR index classes. However, it is worth noting that this accuracy rate represents a starting point, and further refinement and feature engineering may enhance the model's performance. This research underscores the significance of machine learning techniques in the domain of journal classification and journal-ranking systems. By harnessing the power of Random Forest, this study aims to facilitate more accurate and efficient categorization of journals, thereby aiding researchers, academics, and institutions in identifying and accessing high-quality scientific literature.