Scrambling for higher metrics in the Journal Impact Factor bubble period: a real-world problem in science management and its implications

Abstract

Universities and funders in many countries have been using Journal Impact Factor (JIF) as an indicator for research and grant assessment despite its controversial nature as a statistical representation of scientific quality. This study investigates how the changes of JIF over the years can affect its role in research evaluation and science management by using JIF data from annual Journal Citation Reports (JCR) to illustrate the changes. The descriptive statistics find out an increase in the median JIF for the top 50 journals in the JCR, from 29.300 in 2017 to 33.162 in 2019. Moreover, on average, elite journal families have up to 27 journals in the top 50. In the group of journals with a JIF of lower than 1, the proportion has shrunk by 14.53% in the 2015–2019 period. The findings suggest a potential ‘JIF bubble period’ that science policymaker, university, public fund managers, and other stakeholders should pay more attention to JIF as a criterion for quality assessment to ensure more efficient science management.

Fortification of retraction notices to improve their transparency and usefulness

“…However, empirical evidence has pointed out that the current system is a major reason for researchers engaging in questionable research practices (QRPs) (Bonn & Pinxten, 2019). The 'publish or perish' culture (Vuong, 2019) or the abuse of journal metrics (Tran et al, 2020) has been held widely accountable. Sacco et al (2018) suggested that believing QRPs is necessary for career advancement is correlated with higher acceptance of QRPs.…”

The rise of research on development economics in Vietnam: Analyses and implications for the public and policymakers from SSHPA 2008-2020 dataset

“…However, regardless of the pure intention, using a mere number to rank a journal has many shortcomings and can be abused in various ways (Tran et al, 2020b, Berenbaum, 2019. Thus, in their reports, Web of Science has to use more sophisticated methods to provide an overview of the scientific development in South and East Asia (Adams et al, 2019), or to identify hot topics and new research fronts (Szomszor et al, 2020).…”

Citations in Scientific Journals in Vietnam: An Analysis from the Field of Educational Science

“…Therefore, it is extremely necessary to propose a criteria and measures for domestic scientific journals to access international publishing standards as well as improve the capacity of Vietnamese researchers. In a number of studies related to improving the quality of international publications of scientists in Vietnam, the issue of improving the capacity of ranking research journals appeared in the works of Chung et al(2019), Cuong, Loc, Trung, & Trung (2020), Ho et al (2019) Hoang et al (2020), Hung (2016), Nguyen et al (2020), Trang et al (2020), Trung, Linh, Phuong, Toan, & Hoang (2020). Most authors have confirmed the trend of increasing the quantity and quality of research in general and research in the field of educational science in Vietnam.…”