
Impact Factor and Citation Metrics: What do they Really Mean? Session 1206 Room 203A January 30, 2009 Debbie Chaves, Wilfrid Laurier University Brian Cameron, Ryerson University
Outline • Measurement of the Business of Science • Background on various methods • Where things can go wrong • What that means for librarians
Why Measure? • Security of knowledge • Predictability • Comparison analysis • Subject and domain dependent • Quantifiability fallacy
Historical Background on Impact Factor Eugene Garfield, "Citation Indexes for Science: A New Dimension in Documentation through Association of Ideas," Science 122, 3159 (July 15, 1955): 108
What is an Impact Factor year 2008 citations to 2006 + 2007 articles articles published in 2006 + 2007 ratio of articles published to articles cited during a rolling two-year window A/B A = citations in 2008 : articles cited in 2006-7 B = citable items published in 2006-7
Use of Impact Factors Collection development Choosing journals for publication Journal assessment/marketing by publishers Evaluation of scholarly research & individual performance, for purposes of tenure and promotion, and funding Evaluation of departments, institutions, and nations
Problems with IF Two-year window # of journals published in discipline ISI coverage Language Publication type Not representative Journal size
Other Issues Citation errors Citation clubs Citation bartering
Manipulation Review articles Case studies Editorial interference
h-index Hirsch, J. E. (2005). "An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output". PNAS102 (46): 16569–16572.
h-index h-index, developed by Jorge Hirsch A scientist has index h if h of [their] Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np - h) papers have at most h citations each.
Criticisms of the h-index Comparisons Age Insensitive Context Limitations of citation databases # of authors
From h to g Given a set of articles ranked in decreasing order of the number of citations that they received, the g-index is the (unique) largest number such that the top g articles received on average at least g citations.
What do the numbers really mean? • Author inaccuracies • ISI calculation inaccuracies • What does an H-index of 1 really mean?
Citation Game-Playing – How to make it Work for YOU! • Become famous so everyone gives you authorship on their paper • HEP in ArXve submission timing • Ride the bias – multiple authors: choose the middle • Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica: 1 articles cited all the papers published in the last 2 years for IF=1.439 compared to 0.655 • Find and ride the trend – Martin Fleischmann was once the most highly cited chemist in Britain
Chemistry Department Scopus H-Index 09-Feb-08 Position h-index patents total number of papers first-year publication last-year publication Publications/year president 5 0 13 1984 2008 0.54 Created Feb 9, 2008 with the faculty at that time. Dependent on information included in SCOPUS. dean science 15 0 51 1988 2008 2.55 assistant 5 0 14 1999 2007 1.75 assistant 5 0 6 1998 2007 0.67 assistant 15 2 48 1998 2007 5.33 assistant 6 0 13 1998 2007 1.44 assistant 7 0 12 1998 2007 1.33 assistant 9 0 14 2000 2005 2.80 CAS 3 0 4 1999 2002 1.33 CAS 10 33 25 1979 2007 0.89 professor 8 0 36 1967 2007 0.90 associate 7 0 17 1992 2005 1.31 CAS 0 0 2 2007 2008 2.00 CAS 17 0 24 1984 2001 1.41 Average 8 2.50 19.93 1992.21 2006.14 1.73
What does this mean for Librarians? • Must be familiar and knowledgeable about the current calculations of Science Worthiness • International students are aware • Administrations and granting agencies will ask for these statistics but may not be aware of their limitations • Avoid the citation culture
Take Home Message Avoid Disregard Syndrome Practice Citation Vigilance