Rise and fall of the Thomson impact factor.
Rise and fall of the Thomson impact factor.
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汤姆森影响因子的上升和下降。
DOI：
10.1097/ede.0b013e31816a1293
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Wilcox,AllenJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wilcox,AllenJ
影响因素起初似乎是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。这是一个衡量期刊论文贡献的程度足以被其他期刊提及的标准。我们认为，这种衡量方法的基础很简单，它提供了一段时间内期刊论文被引用的平均次数。这有一些直观的吸引力。即使在一开始，也有明显的局限性：仅仅引用并不意味着一篇论文很重要甚至是好的。更微妙的问题逐渐出现。影响因素受到操纵，以致扭曲编辑过程。一位编辑拥有两篇同样好的流行病学论文，比如关于乳腺癌和肝病的论文，他可能会因为知道有数百名乳腺癌流行病学家准备引用一篇乳腺癌论文而动摇，但只有少数人关心肝病。这对开拓新领域的作者来说是不公平的。就像生活中的许多其他事情一样，优势似乎属于强者，影响因子的这种局限性已经不是什么秘密了。他们已经被广泛讨论1，2和系统仍然广泛容忍。但最近，事情发生了意想不到的变化。一开始是用来评估期刊的索引，现在已经演变成用来评估期刊上发表的论文的索引，甚至用来评估期刊上发表论文的作者。学术机构根据其研究人员发表的期刊的汤姆森影响因子来确定货币奖励已成为普遍的做法。显然，他们的想法是，“即使你的论文毫无用处，把它发表在影响因子好的期刊上，我们也会原谅你。”
The impact factor seemed at first to be a step in the right direction. Here was a measure of the extent to which a journal’s papers contribute enough to be mentioned by others. This measure had a simple basis (we thought), in providing the average number of times a journal’s papers are cited over a period of time. This had some intuitive appeal. There were obvious limitations even at the outset: mere citation doesn’t mean that a paper is important—or even good. More subtle problems gradually emerged. The impact factor is subject to manipulation, to the extent of distorting the editorial process. An editor who holds 2 equally good epidemiology papers, say on breast cancer and on liver disease, could be swayed by knowing there are hundreds of breast cancer epidemiologists out there ready to cite a breast cancer paper, but only a few who care about liver disease. This is hardly fair to authors who pioneer a new area. As with so many other things in life, the advantage seems to go to the strong.Such limitations of the impact factor are no secret. They have been widely discussed1, 2 and the system remains widely tolerated nonetheless. But lately, events have taken an unexpected turn. What started as an index for evaluating a journal has now morphed into an index for evaluating the papers that are published in the journal—and even for evaluating the authors who write the papers that are published in the journal. It has become widespread practice for academic institutions to base monetary awards on the Thomson impact factor of the journals in which their researchers publish. Apparently the thinking is,“even if your paper is useless, publish it in a journal with a good impact factor and we will forgive you.”
科学信息研究所的书目“影响因子”：它与公共卫生期刊的相关性如何？
影响因子：
6.3
作者：
M. Porta
通讯作者：
M. Porta