Title :
Impact factor and research quality
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Perugia, Padua, Italy
Abstract :
The author discusses issues associated with the usage of the impact factor (IF) in the research community. The oversimplified usage of IF to capture the quality of the research products of a scientist is a malpractice that is affecting the scientific community and it tempts scientists into opportunistic and unethical behaviors. More than one indicator is needed to capture its properties, and IF alone as a journal reputation indicator does not suffice.
Keywords :
ethical aspects; research and development; impact factor; journal reputation indicator; research community; research malpractice; research quality; scientific community; unethical behaviors; Bibliometrics; Proposals; Publishing; Writing;
Journal_Title :
Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/MIM.2014.6968928
