Competition in science and the Matthew core journals

Competition is one of the most essential features of science. A new journal indicator - the "number of Matthew citations in a journal" was found that reflects certain aspects of this competition. The indicator mirrors the competition of countries in scientific journals for recognition in terms of seemingly "redistributed" citations. The indicator shows, as do other journal indicators, an extreme skewed distribution over an ensemble of 2712 SCI journals. Half of all Matthew citations are contained in 144 so-called Matthew core journals. In this paper, a new typology of scientific journals, including the Matthew core journals, is introduced. For a few selected journals, graphs are presented showing national impact factors as well as the absolute number of Matthew citations gained or lost by the countries publishing in the journal. Scientific competition among countries for recognition is strongest in the Matthew core journals, they ate the most competitive markets for scientific publications. Conclusions are drawn for national science policy, for the journal acquisition policy of national libraries, and for the publication behaviour of individual scientists.