Bibliometric indicators to diagnose editorial endogamy in scientific journals

Editorial endogamy in scientific journals is one of the determining aspects in their evaluation. The low presence of endogamy allows to increase the positioning, visibility and potentially impact. The objectives of the study were 1) to identify the existing bibliometric indicators focused on the identification of editorial endogamy in scientific journals and 2) to propose a clasification for editorial endogamy based on the indicator percentage of endogamy. To obtain results, methods at the theoretical and empirical levels were used, mainly documentary analysis and the bibliometric method. The study proposes direct and indirect bibliometric indicators that allow describing editorial endogamy in scientific journals. A classification is established to identify the degree of involvement and the incidence of editorial endogamy in journals. It is concluded that the editorial endogamy constitutes an essential aspect in the evaluation of scientific journals. There are several bibliometric indicators that, directly and indirectly, allow characterizing inbreeding in publications. The existing indicators do not show the degree of affectation of endogamy. In the present study, a classification based on the percentage of endogamy indicator is established, expressed in values between zero and one. The indicators of endogamy and the proposed classification are applied to a case study of a journal, an aspect that demonstrated their applicability.