Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Updating the journal impact factor or total overhaul?

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Vanclay’s proposal (Vanclay (2012). Impact factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification? Scientometrics doi: 10.1007/s11192-011-0561-0) is discussed. We agree that a major overhaul is necessary: journal evaluation must be performed using instruments and not artefacts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Althouse, B. M., West, J. D., Bergstrom, C. T., & Bergstrom, T. (2009). Differences in impact factor across fields and over time. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(1), 27–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouyssou, D., & Marchant, T. (2010). Consistent bibliometric rankings of authors and of journals. Journal of Informetrics, 4(3), 365–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouyssou, D., & Marchant, T. (2011a). Bibliometric rankings of journals based on journal impact factors: an axiomatic approach. Journal of Informetrics, 5(1), 75–86.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Bouyssou, D., & Marchant, T. (2011b). Ranking scientists and departments in a consistent manner. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(9), 1761–1769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brumback, R. A. (2009). Impact factor: let’s be unreasonable! Epidemiology, 20, 932–933.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drijvers, P., & Gravemeijer, K. (2004). Computer algebra as an instrument: examples of algebraic schemes. In D. Guin, K. Ruthven, & L. Trouche (Eds.), The didactical challenge of symbolic calculators: turning a computational device into a mathematical instrument (pp. 171–206). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1998). The Impact Factor and using it correctly. Der Unfallchirurg, 101(6), 413–414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (2006). The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. Journal of the American Medical Association, 295(1), 90–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W. (1996). The need for standards in bibliometric research and technology. Scientometrics, 35(2), 167–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyndman, R. J., & Fan, Y. (1996). Sample quantiles in statistical packages. The American Statistician, 50(4), 361–364.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingwersen, P., Larsen, B., Rousseau, R., & Russell, J. (2001). The publication-citation matrix and its derived quantities. Chinese Science Bulletin, 46(6), 524–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ketcham, C. M. (2007). Predicting impact factor one year in advance. Laboratory Investigation, 87, 520–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurmis, A. P. (2003). Understanding the limitations of the journal impact factor. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 85, 2449–2454.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leydesdorff, L. (2011). Scientific certainty. SIGMETRICS (December 2, 2011). Available at: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/sigmetrics.html.

  • Leydesdorff, L., & Bornmann, L. (2011). Integrated impact indicators compared with impact factors: An alternative research design with policy implications. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(11), 2133–2146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naik, G. (2011). Scientists’ elusive goal: reproducing study results. Wall Street Journal online. (Available from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203764804577059841672541590.html, accessed on 2012-01-10).

  • Pendlebury, D.A. (2007). Thomson Scientific corrects inaccuracies in editorial. (Available from: http://community.thomsonreuters.com/t5/Citation-Impact-Center/bg-p/citation, accessed on 2012-01-10).

  • Rossner, M., Van Epps, H., & Hill, E. (2007). Show me the data. Journal of Cell Biology, 179(6), 1091–1092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, R. (1988). Citation distribution of pure mathematics journals. In L. Egghe & R. Rousseau (Eds.), Informetrics 87/88 (pp. 249–262). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, R. (2002). Journal evaluation: technical and practical issues. Library Trends, 50(3), 418–439.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, R. (2005). Impact factors and databases as instruments for research evaluation. In J. P. Qiu (Ed.), University evaluation & research evaluation (pp. 255–262). Beijing: Hua Xia Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, A., & Glänzel, W. (1983). Statistical reliability of comparisons based on the citation impact of scientific publications. Scientometrics, 5(1), 59–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seglen, P. O. (1994). Causal relationship between article citedness and journal impact factor. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45(1), 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanclay, J.K. (2012). Impact factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification? Scientometrics. doi: 10.1007/s11192-011-0561-0.

  • Wu, X. F., Fu, Q., & Rousseau, R. (2008). On indexing in the web of science and predicting impact factor. Journal of Zhejiang University Science B, 9(7), 582–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the National Library of Sciences CAS (Beijing) for its hospitality during his stay while this comment has been written. He thanks in particular Liying Yang for useful discussions on the topic of the impact factor.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering Technology, KHBO (Association K.U.Leuven), Zeedijk 101, B-8400, Oostende, Belgium

    Ronald Rousseau

  2. Department of Mathematics, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, B-3001, Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium

    Ronald Rousseau

  3. Antwerp University (UA), IOIW, Venusstraat 35, B 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Ronald Rousseau

Authors
  1. Ronald Rousseau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald Rousseau.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rousseau, R. Updating the journal impact factor or total overhaul?. Scientometrics 92, 413–417 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0649-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0649-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation