Bias in the journal impact factor
Digital Libraries
2008-12-23 v2 Other Quantitative Biology
Abstract
The ISI journal impact factor (JIF) is based on a sample that may represent half the whole-of-life citations to some journals, but a small fraction (<10%) of the citations accruing to other journals. This disproportionate sampling means that the JIF provides a misleading indication of the true impact of journals, biased in favour of journals that have a rapid rather than a prolonged impact. Many journals exhibit a consistent pattern of citation accrual from year to year, so it may be possible to adjust the JIF to provide a more reliable indication of a journal's impact.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cs/0612091,
title = {Bias in the journal impact factor},
author = {Jerome K Vanclay},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cs/0612091},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
9 pages, 8 figures; one reference corrected