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The Inflation of Impact Factors of Scientific Journals
Author(s) -
Stock Wolfgang G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.200900495
Subject(s) - multitude , cites , impact factor , citation , measure (data warehouse) , inflation (cosmology) , data science , citation analysis , positive economics , econometrics , computer science , economics , political science , library science , law , theoretical physics , physics , data mining , fishery , biology
Keeping an overview: Nowadays, we are confronted with a multitude of different impact indicators. This essay discusses some of the problems of citation analysis—and of indicators claiming to give a measure of the standing of a scholarly periodical. Incomplete data sets and the (mostly forgotten) highly skewed distribution of papers by cites (see figure) are two of the most critical points of the journal impact calculation.