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Beyond the impact factor: taking a wider view of journal evaluation Cover

Beyond the impact factor: taking a wider view of journal evaluation

By: Ian Potter  
Open Access
|Mar 2016

Abstract

Publishers, librarians, funders and researchers are faced with the task of evaluating academic journals. Journals have often been ranked using misapplied metrics or through a single indicator used without appropriate context. The latter usage is controversial as a single indicator only measures one aspect of journal performance and is subject to interpretation. For a more meaningful analysis, a range of different measures should be used, combining both productivity (such as document and citation counts) and also normalized values for wider comparisons and contextualization. Analyses at the journal level should consider the impact of individual published articles. As citation-based measures look at a single aspect of article performance, a more thorough analysis should include a wider set of quantitative and qualitative measures. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.287 | Journal eISSN: 2048-7754
Language: English
Published on: Mar 7, 2016
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

© 2016 Ian Potter, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.