The tyranny of the impact factor: why do we still want to be subjugated?

Albuquerque, Ulysses Paulino de

doi:10.1590/2175-7860201061301

Abstract

A collective obsession with the Impact Factor (IF) has led to major changes in political science in many countries, and in recent years, these changes have been especially visible in Brazil. Despite critiques of both this measure's ability to evaluate the scientific publications and its spread in the evaluation of researchers and institutions, Brazil has taken the IF as an important element in evaluating Brazilian graduate programs. In this article, we briefly try to demonstrate that the IF can be subject to many biases that seem to be completely ignored or unknown.

Key words:
ethics in sciences; editorial policy; citation rate; publication bias

Resumo

A obsessão pelo Fator de Impacto (FI) tem levado a grandes mudanças nas políticas científicas de muitos países, especialmente nos últimos anos no Brasil. Apesar de todas as críticas e discordâncias dessa medida para avaliar as publicações científicas, e a sua extensão na avaliação de pesquisadores e instituições, o Brasil tomou o FI como um importante elemento para avaliar a pós-graduação brasileira. Neste artigo de opinião, procurou-se demonstrar brevemente que o FI pode ser uma fonte de muitos vieses que parecem ser completamente ignorados ou desconhecidos.

Palavras-chave:
ética em ciência; política editorial; taxa de citação; vieses de publicação

Full text available only in PDF format.

References

Aarssen, L.W.; Tregenza, T.; Budden, A.E.; Lortie, C.J.; Koricheva, J. & Leimu, R. 2008. Bang for your Buck: rejection rates and impacts factors in ecological journals. The Open Ecology Journal 1: 14-19.
Abt, H.A. 1998. Why some papers have long citation lifetimes. Nature 395: 756-757.
Albuquerque, U.P. 2009. A qualidade das publicações científicas - considerações de um Editor de Área ao final do mandato. Acta Botanica Brasilica 23: 292-296.
Borsuk, R.M.; Budden, A.E. ; Leimu, R. ; Aarssen, L.W. & Lortie, C.J. 2009. The influence of gender, national language and number of authors on citation rate in ecology. The Open Ecology Journal 2: 25-28.
Brambilla, S.D.S.; Vanz, S.A.S. & Stumpf, I.R.C. 2006. Mapeamento de um artigo produzido na UFRGS: razões das citações recebidas. Revista Eletrônica de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação (Número especial, 1º semestre): 199-208.
Cassey, P. & Blackburn, T.M. 2003. Publication rejection among ecologists. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 375-376.
Cassey, P. & Blackburn, T.M. 2004. Publication and rejection among successful ecologists. BioScience 54: 234-239.
Colquhoun, D. 2003. Challenging the tyranny of impact factors. Nature 423: 479.
Dong, P.; Loh, M. & and Mondry, A. 2005 The "impact factor" revisited. Biomedical Digital Libraries 2:7: doi:10.1186/1742-5581-2-7.
» https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-5581-2-7
Falagas, M.E.; George, M.; Zouglakis, G.M.; Paraskevi, A. & Papastamataki, R.N. 2006. Trends in the impact factor of scientific journals. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 81: 1401-1402.
Figà-Talamanca, A. 2007. Strengths and weaknesses of citation indices and impact factors. Chapter 7. The Authors Volume compilation, Portland Press Ltd. Available in <http://www.portlandpress.com/pp/books/online/QAHEE/001/0083/0010083.pdf> Access on 30 June 2010.
» http://www.portlandpress.com/pp/books/online/QAHEE/001/0083/0010083.pdf
Kokko, H. & Sutherland, W.J. 1999. What do impact factors tell us? Tree 14: 382-384.
Hirsch, J.E. 2005. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102: 16569-16572.
Leimu, R& Koricheva, J. 2005. Does scientific collaboration increase the impact of ecological articles? BioScience 55: 438-443.
Lortie, C.J; Aarssen, L.W. ; Budden, A.E. ; Koricheva, J. K.; Leimu, R. & Tregenza, T. 2007. Publication bias and merit in ecology. Oikos 116: 1247-1253.
Martinson, B.C., Anderson, M.S. & de Vries, R. 2005. Scientists behaving badly. Nature 435: 737-738.
Meneghini, R.; Packer, A.L. & Nassi-Caló, L. 2008. Articles by Latin American authors in prestigious journals have fewer citations. PLoS ONE 3(11): e3804. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003804.
» https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003804
Ruiz, M.A; Greco, O.T. & Braile, D.M. 2009. Fator de impacto: importância e influência no meio editorial, acadêmico e científico. Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Cardiovascular 24. Pp. 273-278.
Tregenza, T. 1997. Darwin a better name than Wallace? Nature 385: 480.
Tregenza, T. 2002. Gender bias in the refereeing process? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17: 349-350.
Scarano, F. R. 2008. Why publish? Revista Brasileira de Botânica 31: 189-194.
Simkin, M.V. & Roychowdhury, V.P. 2003. Read before you cite! Complex Systems 14: 269-274.
Zhang, C-T. 2009. The e-Index, complementing the h-Index for excess citations. PLoSONE4: e5429.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005429.
» https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005429

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Jul-Sep 2010

History

Received
02 May 2010
Accepted
05 Aug 2010

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

[1] Aarssen, L.W.; Tregenza, T.; Budden, A.E.; Lortie, C.J.; Koricheva, J. & Leimu, R. 2008. Bang for your Buck: rejection rates and impacts factors in ecological journals. The Open Ecology Journal 1: 14-19.

[2] Abt, H.A. 1998. Why some papers have long citation lifetimes. Nature 395: 756-757.

[3] Albuquerque, U.P. 2009. A qualidade das publicações científicas - considerações de um Editor de Área ao final do mandato. Acta Botanica Brasilica 23: 292-296.

[4] Borsuk, R.M.; Budden, A.E. ; Leimu, R. ; Aarssen, L.W. & Lortie, C.J. 2009. The influence of gender, national language and number of authors on citation rate in ecology. The Open Ecology Journal 2: 25-28.

[5] Brambilla, S.D.S.; Vanz, S.A.S. & Stumpf, I.R.C. 2006. Mapeamento de um artigo produzido na UFRGS: razões das citações recebidas. Revista Eletrônica de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação (Número especial, 1º semestre): 199-208.

[6] Cassey, P. & Blackburn, T.M. 2003. Publication rejection among ecologists. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 375-376.

[7] Cassey, P. & Blackburn, T.M. 2004. Publication and rejection among successful ecologists. BioScience 54: 234-239.

[8] Colquhoun, D. 2003. Challenging the tyranny of impact factors. Nature 423: 479.

[9] Dong, P.; Loh, M. & and Mondry, A. 2005 The "impact factor" revisited. Biomedical Digital Libraries 2:7: doi:10.1186/1742-5581-2-7.
» https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-5581-2-7

[10] Falagas, M.E.; George, M.; Zouglakis, G.M.; Paraskevi, A. & Papastamataki, R.N. 2006. Trends in the impact factor of scientific journals. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 81: 1401-1402.

[11] Figà-Talamanca, A. 2007. Strengths and weaknesses of citation indices and impact factors. Chapter 7. The Authors Volume compilation, Portland Press Ltd. Available in <http://www.portlandpress.com/pp/books/online/QAHEE/001/0083/0010083.pdf> Access on 30 June 2010.
» http://www.portlandpress.com/pp/books/online/QAHEE/001/0083/0010083.pdf

[12] Kokko, H. & Sutherland, W.J. 1999. What do impact factors tell us? Tree 14: 382-384.

[13] Hirsch, J.E. 2005. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102: 16569-16572.

[14] Leimu, R& Koricheva, J. 2005. Does scientific collaboration increase the impact of ecological articles? BioScience 55: 438-443.

[15] Lortie, C.J; Aarssen, L.W. ; Budden, A.E. ; Koricheva, J. K.; Leimu, R. & Tregenza, T. 2007. Publication bias and merit in ecology. Oikos 116: 1247-1253.

[16] Martinson, B.C., Anderson, M.S. & de Vries, R. 2005. Scientists behaving badly. Nature 435: 737-738.

[17] Meneghini, R.; Packer, A.L. & Nassi-Caló, L. 2008. Articles by Latin American authors in prestigious journals have fewer citations. PLoS ONE 3(11): e3804. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003804.
» https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003804

[18] Ruiz, M.A; Greco, O.T. & Braile, D.M. 2009. Fator de impacto: importância e influência no meio editorial, acadêmico e científico. Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Cardiovascular 24. Pp. 273-278.

[19] Tregenza, T. 1997. Darwin a better name than Wallace? Nature 385: 480.

[20] Tregenza, T. 2002. Gender bias in the refereeing process? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17: 349-350.

[21] Scarano, F. R. 2008. Why publish? Revista Brasileira de Botânica 31: 189-194.

[22] Simkin, M.V. & Roychowdhury, V.P. 2003. Read before you cite! Complex Systems 14: 269-274.

[23] Zhang, C-T. 2009. The e-Index, complementing the h-Index for excess citations. PLoSONE4: e5429.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005429.
» https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005429

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