Journal Editors Question Impact Factor Methods.
I’m taking the liberty of not composing a post for Scholar’s Space and simply entering one I made for LibraryLink, because of the subject’s importance:
The director of the Rockefeller University Press and the editors of the <em>Journal of Cell Biology</em> and the <em>Journal of Experimental Medicine</em> have published an editorial “Show me the data” in the JCB, recounting their efforts to analyze Impact Factor (IF) data relating to their publications, and to those of other journals publishing in the same field. The authors say, in effect, that the numbers don’t add up. They also express their frustration and disappointment. Since the IF is a very big deal in some places at least, and since some serious decisions have been based on that data, a report of this nature is reason for concern. People resentful or suspicious of the decisions relying on IF information were sometimes dismissed as sore losers or cranks, who couldn’t accept what were termed the objective and quantifiable facts of IF analysis. Now, maybe not so much. We shall see what we shall see.
Show me
