The Number That's Devouring Science

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Chronicle of Higher Education
>From the issue dated October 14, 2005 
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i08/08a01201.htm 
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The Number That's Devouring Science

The impact factor, once a simple way to rank scientific journals, has
become an unyielding yardstick for hiring, tenure, and grants

By RICHARD MONASTERSKY

In the beginning, during the late 1950s, it was just an innocent idea in
Eugene Garfield's head. A Philadelphia researcher who described himself as
a "documentation consultant," Mr. Garfield spent his free time thinking
about scientific literature and how to mine information from it.

He eventually dreamed up something he called an "impact factor,"
essentially a grading system for journals, that could help him pick out
the most important publications from the ranks of lesser titles. To
identify which journals mattered most to scientists, he proposed tallying
up the number of citations an average article in each journal received.

This accounting method sounds harmless enough. Outside academe, few people
have even heard of it. Mr. Garfield, though, now compares his brainchild
to nuclear energy: a force that can help society but can unleash mayhem
when it is misused.

Indeed, impact factors have assumed so much power, especially in the past
five years, that they are starting to control the scientific enterprise.
In Europe, Asia, and, increasingly, the United States, Mr. Garfield's tool
can play a crucial role in hiring, tenure decisions, and the awarding of
grants.

"The impact factor may be a pox upon the land because of the abuse of that
number," says Robert H. Austin, a professor of physics at Princeton
University.

Impact-factor fever is spreading, threatening to skew the course of
scientific research, say critics. Investigators are now more likely to
chase after fashionable topics - the kind that get into high-impact
journals - than to follow important avenues that may not be the flavor of
the year, says Yu-Li Wang, a professor of physiology at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School. "It influences a lot of people's research
direction."

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