Athanassios C. Tsikliras, Chasing after the high impact, Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, March 6, 2008.
Abstract: In this paper, I present the perspectives of a young non-native English speaking scientist from a southern European country (Greece) on the impact factor system that is commonly used to assess the performance of countries, institutions, and scientists, including the role this plays in the selection of a journal to which to submit a manuscript. Although young scientists may not always be aware of the advantages and pitfalls of the impact factor system when it comes to the choice of which journal to submit to, journal ranking is among the selection criteria, following the journal’s general scope and rapid manuscript handling but preceding choice of a journal which allows authors to suggest potential referees, and open access journals. The impact factor system is briefly criticised and some improvements are suggested, such as adjustment among scientific disciplines, accounting for the number of authors and the position of an author among them as well as including a page (or word) count.
Tsikliras recommends OA as one criterion among others when selecting a journal, and one fairly far down the priority list: "A final criterion, not crucial but certainly important, is online access, with open-access journals generally preferred because they provide a wider audience, more citations and thus, greater impact." But despite the topic of the paper, and despite this quotation acknowledging that OA increases audience and impact, the paper doesn't mention (1) the Hitchcock bibliography, (2) the empirical studies showing that OA correlates with, and probably causes, a 40-250% boost in citations over non-OA articles published in the same issues of the same journals, or (3) the possibility of publishing in a journal of middling impact and self-archiving to boost the impact of one's individual article.
Update (6/3/08). There were two more OA-related articles in the issue and I just blogged them.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/02/2008 05:11:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
