Slide de resumo

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Slide de resumo

• THE IMPACT FACTOR OF MEDICAL JOURNALS ITS USE
  AND MISUSE

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THE IMPACT FACTOR OF MEDICAL JOURNALS ITS USE
AND MISUSE

• Luis Benítez-Bribiesca
• Editor-in-Chief
• Archives of Medical Research
• (México)

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IMPACT FACTOR

• Counting references to rank the use of scientific
  journals was reported as early as 1927 by Gross
  and Gross. The term impact factor was not used
  until the publication of the 1961 in Science
  Citation Index (SCI) in 1963. This led to a
  byproduct, Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and a
  burgeoning literature using bibliometric
  measures.
• Source Garfield E. How can impact factors be
  improved? BMJ 1966 313413-5.

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IMPACT FACTOR

• The most used data in the JCR are impact
  factors-ratios obtained from dividing citations
  received in 1 year (numerator) by papers
  published during the two previous years
  (denominator). JCRs impact calculations are
  based on original research and review articles,
  as well as on notes. Letters of the type
  published in the BMJ and the Lancet are not
  included in the publication count, but all
  references are counted in the numerator.

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IMPACT FACTOR

• The scope of bibliometric studies is the
  treatment and quantitative analysis of scientific
  publications. They belong to the so-called
  social studies of science and science policy
  constitutes one of its main applied fields.

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JOURNALS WITH THE HIGHEST IMPACT FACTOR IN
1969Source Farfield E. Citation Analysis as a
Tool in Journal Evaluation. Science 1972
178471
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JOURNALS WITH THE HIGHEST IMPACT FACTOR IN
1999Source Journal Citation Reports (JCR) on
CD-ROM 1999 Science Edition Journal
RankingsSorted by Impact Factor
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JOURNALS PUBLISHING REVIEW ARTICLES WITHINTHE
50 MOST CITED IN 1969 Source Garfield E.
Citation Analysis as a Tool in Journal
Evaluation. Science 1972 178471

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JOURNALS PUBLISHING REVIEW ARTICLES WITHIN THE 50
MOST CITED IN 1999Source Journal of Citation
Reports (JCR) on CD-ROM 1999 Science Edition
Journal Rankings Sorted by Impact Factor.
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BIOMEDICAL JOURNALS WITH THE HIGHEST IMPACT
FACTOR (1999)Source Journal Citation Reports
(JCR) on CD-ROM 1999 Science Edition Journal
Rankings Sorted by Impact Factor
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MEDICAL JOURNALS WITH THE HIGHEST IMPACT FACTOR
(1999)Source Journal Citation Reports (JCR) on
CD-ROM 1999 Science Edition Journal Rankings
Sorted by Impact Factor
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THE USE OF IMPACT FACTOR

• The impact factor is being used with increasing
  frequency to evaluate the quality of a journal
  and the relevance of individual scientific
  output despite a number of articles and claims
  that challenge the use of this index as a sound
  criterion for judging the quality of both
  research and journals. It is frequently
  overlooked that Garfield himself, the inventor of
  the IF, emphasized that its potential value would
  be primarily in the management of library journal
  collections to determine their optimum makeup,
  providing solid basis for cost-benefit analysis
  of subscription budgets.

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THE USE OF IMPACT FACTOR

• The impact of the IF has been so great that its
  use has been injudiciously extended to judge the
  quality of a journal and what is more
  distressing, the quality of scientific output.
  Furthermore if the IF is taken as an indication
  for orienting editorial policies, then scientists
  and journals in peripheral fields would find
  increasing difficulties in publishing important
  contributions out of the mainstreams of current
  scientific research. In other words, this
  possesses the danger to halt scientific
  creativity and freedom.

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THE MISUSE OF IMPACT FACTOR

• Traditionally, committees formed by senior
  scientists scrutinize the scientific production
  of the candidate and mainly judge the quantity
  and quality of their publications. Quantity is
  easily evaluated, involving counting the number
  of articles, whereas quality is a notoriously
  difficult aspect to appraise, in that
  subjectivity and bias frequently overshadow the
  process.

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THE MISUSE OF IMPACT FACTOR

• Most evaluation committees in developing nations
  currently base promotions, resource allocations,
  and awards solely on citation indices and IF,
  particularly in the medical field. What is more
  surprising is that most scientists and peer
  reviewers seem to be convinced that this is the
  best method for considering scientific quality.

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THE MISUSE OF IMPACT FACTOR

• Hecht et al warn that IF should not be misused to
  evaluate journals or to validate scientific
  relevance, especially in decisions regarding
  employment, funding, and academic promotions.
  They emphasize that IF has clearly become a key
  marketing tool in biomedical publishing, and fear
  that editorial policies, once determined by
  scientific editors, may increasingly be dictated
  by executives and accountants.

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THE MISUSE OF IMPACT FACTOR

• Garfield points out that successful editors and
  publishers know that in order to improve the
  editorial quality of journals, there is no
  substitute for good judgment, quality, and
  relevance. Impact and other citation measures
  merely report the facts.

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PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE JOURNAL IMPACT
FACTORS

• Journal impact factors are not statistically
  representative of individual journal articles.
• Journal impact factors correlate poorly with
  actual citations of individual articles.
• Review articles are heavily cited and inflate the
  impact factor of journals.
• Long articles collect many citations and yield
  high journal impact factors.
• Short publications lag allows many short-tem
  journal self-citations and produces a high
  journal impact factor.
• Citations in the national language of the journal
  are preferred by the journals authors.

• Database has an English language bias.
• The database is dominated by U.S. Publications.
• Impact factor depends on the dynamics (expansion
  or contraction) of the research field.
• Small research fields tend to lack journals with
  high impact.
• The citation of articles determines journal
  impact but not viceversa .
• Citation is biased when publications come from
  scientifically less developed countries. A good
  example is what occurs in Latin America.

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PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE JOURNAL IMPACT
FACTOR

• Articles that came directly from Latin America in
  1995 represented only 1.8 of the total. Even so,
  this represents an increase from 1981, in which
  year the figure was 1.3. Another important
  finding was that 85 of the scientific articles
  originating in Latin America came from only four
  countries Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile.
  These articles were cited between 40 and 60
  less than the world average for papers in the
  same field.

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LEADING LATIN AMERICAN NATIONS CITED IN THE
SCISource Ardila R. Scientific Publishing in
Latin America. Mexico (1999)
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CLINICAL MEDICINE AND EMERGING FIELDS

• There is a great difference in the numbers of
  citations between basic biomedical research and
  purely clinical publications. Biomedical
  research, particularly if releated to molecular
  genetics, tends to be highly cited, while
  clinical publications are not. Clinical medicine
  publications draw heavily on basic science
  references, but not viceversa.

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CLINICAL MEDICINE AND EMERGING FIELDS

• The goals of the scientist can be diverted from
  the original purpose of scientific endeavor
  towards achieving a higher citation rate,
  especially in the biomedical sciences. To obtain
  the benefits of funding and academic promotion,
  most medical scientists prefer to work in
  molecular genetics rather than to participate in
  patient-oriented research. This is contributing
  to the progressive decline of physician-scientists
  .

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AGONY OF IF. THE INTERNET

• The radical change brought about by the Web for
  publishing and searching scientific literature is
  changing the classical scheme of printed library
  collections and private journal subscriptions. It
  is, therefore, foreseeable that the IF will lose
  its significance to the extent that electronic
  publishing and free access to databases
  substitute for printed journals.