The cock, the Academy, and the best scientific journal in the world

Abstract

The reader is invited to travel to Ancient Greece, contemporary Brazil, and other places in a fantasy search for the best scientific journal. This whimsical search does not rely on the impact factor, the most popular tool used in real life for finding good journals. Instead, it takes advantage of the so-called authority factor, a recently proposed alternative to the impact factor. The authority factor of a particular journal is the mean h-index (Hirsch's index) of the most suitable group of this journal's editors. Having no connection to any major function of scientific journals, and also being arbitrary (which group of editors to select?), this factor is poorly suited for any technical analysis, but it seems to work well for “small-talk” editorials and self-promotion by complacent editors. Interestingly, the highest authority factor we could find belongs to the journal Temperature. This claim, however, should not be taken too seriously.

Brazil: What country is this?

“…Furthermore, Brazilians believe in qualitative initiatives such as the development of an academic journal aimed at gathering the scientific research in the field of temperature sciences 29 and that has a very consolidated editorial board 30 . The initial plan was to publish 5 or 6 manuscripts in the special issue on Temperature Sciences in Brazil, but, fortunately, we have finished the issue with a total of 20 items.…”