On the communication value of English academic journals published in China based on citation analysis

English is a global language of science in all fields.English academic journals published in China play a very important role in scientific research and communication between China and the world.A new indicator Q-value is designed to evaluate the communication value of English academic journals published in China,which is borrowed from a result of linguistic studies.The Q-value is comprised of three independent indicators,i.e.,prevalence index,centrality index and international diffusivity index,which form a three-dimensional coordinate system and each journal is defined as a vector and the Q-value is the length of the vector.A total of 45 English academic journals are surveyed and the result shows that the proposed Q-value can correctly describe the communication value of these English academic journals.