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The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality

by Walter Jessen

This article has been viewed 2800 times and has 23 comments.

Via BMJ Group blogs:
BMJ » Richard Smith: The beginning of the end for impact factors and journals.

Something has just happened that will almost certainly end the tyranny of impact factors and may well mark another step towards the extinction of most scientific journals. Did you notice it? Probably not, and even if you did you may not have understood what it was or what it may lead to.

It was the appearance of something called rather clunkily “article level metrics.” These are a variety of scores and other bits of information attached to each article in the publications of the Public Library of Science (where I’m on the board). They shift attention from journals to articles, particularly for the academic bean counters anxious to find a convenient and low cost way of ranking academics.

Article-level metrics

Article-level metrics are distinct from the traditional journal-level measures of research quality. The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is the first publisher to implement article level metrics, which currently includes:

  • Article usage statistics (pageviews, PDF and XML downloads)
  • Citations from the scholarly literature
  • Social bookmarks from CiteULike and Connotea
  • Reader comments
  • Reader notes
  • Blog posts aggregated from Postgenomic, Nature Blogs and Bloglines
  • Reader ratings

Further measures are being developed. For more information, check out Mark Patterson’s post Article-level metrics at PLoS – addition of usage data.

In the PLoS Conversations video below, Cameron Neylon discusses how article-level metrics can make online research easier and how PLoS is adding support for them directly on their site.

Article-level Metrics from PLoS

More about PLoS article-level metrics can be found at http://article-level-metrics.plos.org/.

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Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009

Topic: Science News


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5 Comments

23 responses to "The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality"


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  1. NextGenScience (NextGenScience) trackbacked on November 2nd, 2009:

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    The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [NGS] [link to post] #article-level #metrics #PLoS

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  2. Neil Saunders commented on November 2nd, 2009:

    Dare I believe that "end the impact factor" is gaining momentum? It feels that way sometimes. Or is it just in my own small networks?

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  3. neilfws (Neil Saunders) trackbacked on November 2nd, 2009:

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    Liked “The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [NGS]” [link to post]

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  4. flipphillips (flip phillips) trackbacked on November 2nd, 2009:

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    The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] #PLoS (via @NextGenScience)

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  5. Björn Brembs commented on November 3rd, 2009:

    @Neil: One of the most sought after talks that I give is the one on publishing and the feedback is always in favor of getting rid of IFs.

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  6. wozzza (Warren Cross) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [NGS] [link to post]

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  7. jobadge (jobadge) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    What will Thompson isi do? RT @wozzza: The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [NGS] [link to post]

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  8. berci (Berci Mesko, MD) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post]

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  9. jacarrico (João André Carriço) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    Thumbs Up! ->The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] #article-level #metrics #PLoS

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  10. biochemnews (Perry Hartfield) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    Hens Teeth or Flying pigs? The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] #article-level #metrics #PLoS

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  11. Andrew Grimm commented on November 3rd, 2009:

    I wonder how long it´ll be until the first attempts to game the system? (Then again, people already try to ¨game the system¨ with peer-reviewed publications)

  12. novoseek (novo|seek) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    Reading “The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality” on NGS by @wjessen [link to post]

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  13. dublindoc (DublinDoc) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    RT @Berci: The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post]

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  14. gica_1 (Agnes Fesus) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] #article-level #metrics #PLoS

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  15. fvnek (Franc Viktor Nekrep) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    RT @BoraZ: The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] Znanstvena srenja: VELJA prisluhniti!!!

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  16. kzelnio (Kevin Zelnio) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    RT @BoraZ: The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] #article-level #metrics #PLoS

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  17. nelas (Bruno C. Vellutini) trackbacked on November 3rd, 2009:

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    Liked “The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality [link to post] #article-level #metrics #PLoS” http://ff.im/-aV1yx

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  18. Mickey Schafer commented on November 3rd, 2009:

    Many of my students report that their PIs tell them to consider journal mission first, IF a close second, everything else a distant third. In fact, this is how I learned what IF was a few years back — a student asked me b/c he didn’t know what his PI was talking about (and didn’t want the PI to know that he didn’t know!). I didn’t either. A few clicks and wikipedia reads later, we all knew.

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  19. Mickey Schafer commented on November 3rd, 2009:

    Many of my students report that their PIs tell them to consider journal audience first, IF a close second, everything else a distant third. In fact, this is how I learned what IF was a few years back — a student asked me b/c he didn’t know what his PI was talking about (and didn’t want the PI to know that he didn’t know!). I didn’t either. A few clicks and wikipedia reads later, we all knew.

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  20. aarontay commented on November 3rd, 2009:

    Was at David Pendlebury’s "Discover the Power of Quantitative Analysis – The Art & Science of Identifying Future Nobel Laureates", same message don’t use IF as proxy for article influence. Pretty obvious really, but I suppose IF is okay for evaluating journals?

    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  21. candyschwartz (Candy Schwartz) trackbacked on November 5th, 2009:

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    Article-level metrics RT @notinmy: “The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality”: [link to post]

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  22. notinmy (Garrett Eastman) trackbacked on November 5th, 2009:

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    “The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality”: [link to post]

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  23. The Best of Next Generation Science 2009 – The Year in Review | Next Generation Science pingbacked on January 1st, 2010:

    [...] The End of Impact Factors as a Measure of Research Quality(article #51; average: 26 page views/day) [...]




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