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The Impact Factor in non-English-speaking countries

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Abstract

The representativeness of the ISI-Thomson Impact Factor rankings and the existing relationship between countries’ national languages and the diffusion of scientific publications is analyzed. We discuss literature on the Impact Factor related to language use, publication strategies for authors and editors from non-English-speaking countries, the effects of the inclusion of a new journal in the ISI-Thomson databases and the scientific policies articulated in some non-English-speaking countries. The adoption of the Impact Factor as the valuation criterion for scientific activities has favoured the consolidation of English language journals in the diffusion of scientific knowledge. The vernacular languages only conserve part of their importance in certain disciplines, such as Clinical Medicine or Social Sciences and Humanities. The Impact Factor, invented over 50 years ago now, could be a limitation for non-English authors and scientific journals, and does not consider some widely used practices among the scientific community concerning the development of Internet as a means for the diffusion of knowledge.

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Acknowledgment

We are grateful to Maxima Bolaños-Pizarro, who provided data from her doctoral thesis about language use in Cardiology field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Historia de la Ciencia y Documentación, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Gregorio González-Alcaide & Juan Carlos Valderrama-Zurián

  2. Unidad de Información e Investigación Social y Sanitaria-UISYS, Palau de Cerveró. 4, Cisneros Square, 46003, València, Spain

    Gregorio González-Alcaide, Juan Carlos Valderrama-Zurián & Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent

  3. Universitat de València, CSIC, Valencia, Spain

    Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent

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  1. Gregorio González-Alcaide
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  2. Juan Carlos Valderrama-Zurián
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  3. Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent
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Correspondence to Gregorio González-Alcaide.

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González-Alcaide, G., Valderrama-Zurián, J.C. & Aleixandre-Benavent, R. The Impact Factor in non-English-speaking countries. Scientometrics 92, 297–311 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0692-y

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