Which do you think is more important, impact factor or works cited, and why?
Hi,
The impact factor is a measurement of the influence of journals , it is a relative measure that calculates the relation between journals' citations and journals publications. The citations to papers measure the influence of an individual article. Usually, the ranking of journals by impact factor is done for bibliometric and scientometrics research purposes, and the papers cited are important for the individual who authors the paper.
Nevertheless, when academic promotion is considered, the quality and impact of the journals where the candidate publishes his papers, is observed.
Hi Evelyn,
I think there may be a misunderstanding here. Impact Factors apply to journals and citations apply to the works of individual authors. For the individual author citation metrics or altmetrics [ https://www.altmetric.com/ ] are the most relevant. Publishing in a high impact journal has kudos for the author but may not say much about an individual article. BW Matt
With both the problem is with self citations is that authors with many papers (big research groups) can "push" there citation values leading to "higher" indices. So more papers would directly lead to more citations, which might reduce the quality. Further, the scientific community evaluates the value of a paper by citations and not the author himself.
Hi,
The impact factor is a measurement of the influence of journals , it is a relative measure that calculates the relation between journals' citations and journals publications. The citations to papers measure the influence of an individual article. Usually, the ranking of journals by impact factor is done for bibliometric and scientometrics research purposes, and the papers cited are important for the individual who authors the paper.
Nevertheless, when academic promotion is considered, the quality and impact of the journals where the candidate publishes his papers, is observed.
Interesting discussion!!!
I agree with all the experts. I think these two parameters are interelated also, it may not be able to see to a particular work (paper) but it can be in majority. I came across some journals having very nice paper (quality, presentation, standard of work) but having lower impact factors than some others journals having lower level of work published. In comparing both the journals, I found that publication rates (quantity) and citation are found to be higher in case of second one (which in my view have lower quality of work) and this might have enhance its impact factor. So, going in depth, I think a direct comparison of impact factors doesn't necessarily decide the quality of all the works. On the other hand, a very nice work which is not of a very common research area are found to be less number of citation or vice versa. So, I think strictly speaking, both the parameters have its own merits and demerits.
With best regards
Hi,
The impact factor is a measurement of the influence of journals , it is a relative measure that calculates the relation between journals' citations and journals publications. The citations to papers measure the influence of an individual article.
The impact factor (IF) is the average number of citations received for each published article for a particular year. It determines the ranking of a journal in the concerned domain (JCR).
From citations, the h-index is computed; this measures the performance of researcher or scientist based on the citations of his or her research publications.
Regards
Researchers prefer to read articles published in high impact factor journals and reputed publishers. Therefore, with the increase in the impact factor, the chances of getting your papers cited are increased. Note that the phrase 'chance' means higher probability and not a necessary consequence.
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