The journal impact factor as a parameter for the evaluation of researchers and research

Abstract

The journal impact factor (IF), which is published annually by the Institute for Scientific Information ® (USA), is meanwhile in widespread use as a scientometric parameter for the evaluation of research and researchers in Germany and other European countries. The present article subjects the IF to critical analysis. It first deals with processes of production, transfer, and use of medical knowledge, because the IF intervenes in these processes on account of its reflexivity. Secondary effects of the IF resulting from its reflexivity are discussed with the focus on the level of the author, the journal and the medical discipline as well as on social knowledge processes in society. In addition, the extent to which the IF is appropriate for evaluating the quality of a specific article, of a journal or of individual and collective research achievements is discussed. The present article calls for a) research evaluation in accordance with the recommendations of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council, DFG) and of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fachgesellschaften (Association of the Scientific Medical Societies, AWMF); and b) for more intensive occupation with and organization of medical knowledge processes.

Impact factors and their significance; overrated or misused?

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14] Certainly, the actual impact on the community of an article is not necessarily related to the IF. …”

An international comparison of journal publishing and citing behaviours

“…Surveying physicians to rate the quality of journals, the validity of the impact factor as an indicator of quality for General Medicine was examined and revealed that it may be a credible measure (Saha, Saint, & Christakis, 2003). But, as many studies have confirmed, it cannot be a reasonable indicator of quality for an individual article (Seglen, 1997a;1997b;1997c;Garfield, 1998;Whitehouse, 2001;Kaltenborn & Kuhn, 2004;Gracza & Somoskovi, 2007). Campbell (2008) declares that the journal impact factor is suitable to measure impact at national and institutional levels but not at the individual level.…”

Book Review: The Publish or Perish Book: Your Guide to Effective and Responsible Citation Analysis

“…This has led to considerable controversy [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and some ethical concerns, 17-22 along with fueling a search for better numeric measures of academic quality [23][24][25][26][27] (of course, the ultimate method to evaluate quality would be the careful examination of research publications; unfortunately, reading seems too cumbersome for administrators seeking only numbers for ranking).…”