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This paper by Adam Eyre-Walker explores the critical role of publication venues in determining citation impact within the scientific community. It delves into the correlation between the quality of research papers and their citations, focusing on the influence of journal prestige. By analyzing data from the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and employing various metrics such as journal impact factors and RAE scores, the study provides insights into how publication strategies affect scholarly recognition and the dissemination of scientific knowledge.
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Does It Matter Where We Publish? Adam Eyre-Walker University of Sussex
Reasons • Prestige • peers • employers • Impact • scientific community • society
Measuring impact • General • difficult to measure • Citations • Easy to measure • Velvet Underground effect • “only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band” (Brian Eno)
Question Do papers of similar quality garner more citations in better quality journals?
Ideal experiment • Papers made anonymous • authors • journal • structure • Assessed for quality by experts • Assessments confidential • Citations tracked
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) • Each department submits • 4 publications per academic (75%) • 4 indicators of Esteem (5%) • Environment • PhD student numbers • Grant income • Research structure • Facilities • Superceded by REF
RAE dataset • 1170 papers published 2001 - 2007 • Scored by AEW • Scored 1 to 4 (or unclassified) • Subjects : evolutionary biology, genomics, bioinformatics, ecology, animal behaviour and organismal biology • Ranked without reference to • journal • citations
Journal quality • Impact factor • Number times papers published in the two previous years are cited in target year • Two components • Quality of papers • Effect of the journal on citations
Citations • No. of citations from ISI Web of Science • October 2008
Data • For each paper • Year of publication • RAE score (RS) • No. of citations • Impact factor of journal (IF category) • Otherwise anonymous
How good is the assessor? • Correlation between AEW and co-scorers > 0.7 • Correlation between RS and no. of citations within each IF category and within each year
How good is the assessor? • Correlation between AEW and co-scorers > 0.7 • Correlation between RS and no. of citations within each IF category and within each year • Average r = 0.27 (p<0.001) • Average rmax = 0.73
RS v citation correlation r = -0.37 p = 0.005
Central question • Do papers of similar quality accumulate more citations in some journals than others?
RAE score 2 p < 0.001
RAE score 3 p < 0.001
Alternative explanation • Systematically underestimate quality of papers in high ranking journals • Test • Assume no effect of journal • Consider correlation between RS and journal (IF) controlling for citations
Question • Impact factors – relative contribution of • Paper quality • Journal effect
Summary • Assessor scores correlated to citations • strength correlated to age • Assessor scores influenced by journal • Papers published in higher quality journals accumulate more citations independent of quality • F1000 data
Question • Where will we submit?
Thanks Nina Stoletzki
Assessor and journal • Assume • citations measure quality • no journal effect