Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank
Most researchers acknowledge an intrinsic hierarchy in the scholarly journals (‘journal rank’) that they submit their work to, and adjust not only their submission but also their reading strategies accordingly. On the other hand, much has been written about the negative effects of institutionalizing...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full |
| _version_ | 1811286906999144448 |
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| author | Björn eBrembs Katherine eButton Marcus eMunafò |
| author_facet | Björn eBrembs Katherine eButton Marcus eMunafò |
| author_sort | Björn eBrembs |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Most researchers acknowledge an intrinsic hierarchy in the scholarly journals (‘journal rank’) that they submit their work to, and adjust not only their submission but also their reading strategies accordingly. On the other hand, much has been written about the negative effects of institutionalizing journal rank as an impact measure. So far, contributions to the debate concerning the limitations of journal rank as a scientific impact assessment tool have either lacked data, or relied on only a few studies. In this review, we present the most recent and pertinent data on the consequences of our current scholarly communication system with respect to various measures of scientific quality (such as utility/citations, methodological soundness, expert ratings or retractions). These data corroborate previous hypotheses: using journal rank as an assessment tool is bad scientific practice. Moreover, the data lead us to argue that any journal rank (not only the currently-favored Impact Factor) would have this negative impact. Therefore, we suggest that abandoning journals altogether, in favor of a library-based scholarly communication system, will ultimately be necessary. This new system will use modern information technology to vastly improve the filter, sort and discovery functions of the current journal system. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T03:08:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f717379c31eb43ed9d33338a2b5f9435 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T03:08:08Z |
| publishDate | 2013-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-f717379c31eb43ed9d33338a2b5f94352022-12-22T03:05:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612013-06-01710.3389/fnhum.2013.0029145406Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rankBjörn eBrembs0Katherine eButton1Marcus eMunafò2Universität RegensburgUniversity of BristolUniversity of BristolMost researchers acknowledge an intrinsic hierarchy in the scholarly journals (‘journal rank’) that they submit their work to, and adjust not only their submission but also their reading strategies accordingly. On the other hand, much has been written about the negative effects of institutionalizing journal rank as an impact measure. So far, contributions to the debate concerning the limitations of journal rank as a scientific impact assessment tool have either lacked data, or relied on only a few studies. In this review, we present the most recent and pertinent data on the consequences of our current scholarly communication system with respect to various measures of scientific quality (such as utility/citations, methodological soundness, expert ratings or retractions). These data corroborate previous hypotheses: using journal rank as an assessment tool is bad scientific practice. Moreover, the data lead us to argue that any journal rank (not only the currently-favored Impact Factor) would have this negative impact. Therefore, we suggest that abandoning journals altogether, in favor of a library-based scholarly communication system, will ultimately be necessary. This new system will use modern information technology to vastly improve the filter, sort and discovery functions of the current journal system.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/fullFraudLibrariesLibrary ServicesPublishingStatistics as TopicOpen access |
| spellingShingle | Björn eBrembs Katherine eButton Marcus eMunafò Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Fraud Libraries Library Services Publishing Statistics as Topic Open access |
| title | Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank |
| title_full | Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank |
| title_fullStr | Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank |
| title_short | Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank |
| title_sort | deep impact unintended consequences of journal rank |
| topic | Fraud Libraries Library Services Publishing Statistics as Topic Open access |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full |
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