Rethinking impact factors: better ways to judge a journal

Illustration par David Parkins (Nature, mai 2019)

In the paper Rethinking impact factors: better ways to Judge a journal, published in the journal Nature, Paul Wouters and colleagues invite the scientific community to participate in the creation of new measures of scientific publishing, more transparent and inclusive, to improve the evaluation of scientific journals.

 

We therefore suggest the creation of an inclusive governing organization that would focus on journal indicators.

The governing body could propose new indicators to address the various functions of scholarly journals, make recommendations on their responsible use and develop standards. It could also create educational material (such as training in the ethics of indicator development and use) and serve as a place for people to publicize questionable uses of and good practices concerning indicators. For example, it could help to protect researchers against ‘predatory journals’ — typically low-quality publications that do not conduct peer review or curate information as promised, and that exist only for financial gain. The body could also give guidance on open-access publishing and data sharing.

This content has been updated on June 25 2019 at 12 h 26 min.