Citation inequality and the Journal Impact Factor: median, mean, (does it) matter?

Abstract

Skewed citation distribution is a major limitation of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) representing an outlier-sensitive mean citation value per journal The present study focuses primarily on this phenomenon in the medical literature by investigating a total of n = 982 journals from two medical categories of the Journal Citation Report (JCR). In addition, the three highest-ranking journals from each JCR category were included in order to extend the analyses to non-medical journals. For the journals in these cohorts, the citation data (2018) of articles published in 2016 and 2017 classified as citable items (CI) were analysed using various descriptive approaches including e.g. the skewness, the Gini coefficient, and, the percentage of CI contributing 50% or 90% of the journal’s citations. All of these measures clearly indicated an unequal, skewed distribution with highly-cited articles as outliers. The %CI contributing 50% or 90% of the journal’s citations was in agreement with previously published studies with median values of 13–18% CI or 44–60% CI generating 50 or 90% of the journal’s citations, respectively. Replacing the mean citation values (corresponding to the JIF) with the median to represent the central tendency of the citation distributions resulted in markedly lower numerical values ranging from − 30 to − 50%. Up to 39% of journals showed a median citation number of zero in one medical journal category. For the two medical cohorts, median-based journal ranking was similar to mean-based ranking although the number of possible rank positions was reduced to 13. Correlation of mean citations with the measures of citation inequality indicated that the unequal distribution of citations per journal is more prominent and, thus, relevant for journals with lower citation rates. By using various indicators in parallel and the hitherto probably largest journal sample, the present study provides comprehensive up-to-date results on the prevalence, extent and consequences of citation inequality across medical and all-category journals listed in the JCR.

Faculty appointment and promotion in Taiwan’s medical schools, a systematic analysis

“…The observed discrepancy between the research output and the actual citation is perhaps not surprising since the JIF has been shown to correlate poorly with a given article’s number of citations partly because the distribution of the number of citations for articles published in a journal is highly skewed; thus, the JIF, an arithmetic average of citations for all articles, simply cannot represent the number of citations for any single article [ 14 – 16 ]. If the JIF of an article fails to signify how often the article actually gets cited, one has to ask whether the FAP system implemented is serving its essential role: selecting high-quality academics to be promoted in medical schools or more generally in any science and technology oriented higher-education institutions.…”

Development progress of power prediction robot and platform: Its world level very long term prototyping example

“…The main development and demonstration achievements during this study are as follows: (1) (GP2S) prototype version 2021 is decomposed better (Appendix.A.1, ESM.3); (2) historical progress and relation of all proposed robots and platforms (GP2D, GP2E, GP2O) with (GP2S) is prepared and presented better (Appendix.A.2, ESM.4); (3) time horizons and intervals of (GP2S) is enlarged and defined better (time horizon: <1-minute to ≤500-years, time interval: 5-seconds to 50-years) (Appendix.A.3-4, ESM.6-7); (4) geographical, administrative and power grid decomposition of (GP2S) is prepared and presented better (Appendix.A.5, ESM.8); ( 5) system diagram of (GP2S) prototype is prepared and presented better (Appendix.A.6, ESM.11); (6) roles in (GP2S) prototype are prepared and presented for the first time (ESM.12-13); (7) general learning, feedback, and selection loop algorithm of modules and models for the full automation on (GP2S) prototype is prepared and presented for the first time (ESM.19); (8) the first web-app prototype design alternative of (GP2S) for Global Power Consumption Prediction Systems Electricity Prediction Systems (GPCPS-EPS), zone: World, time horizon: ≤ 500-years, time interval: 1-year is developed by using QGIS, R, R Studio, and Quant UX, and presented for the first time (Appendix.B.1, ESM.33, ESM.44-45), (9) 3 different scripting versions are presented with 10 models (R base (lm), R base (glm), R Tidymodels 0.1.4 parsnip (engine("lm"), R Tidymodels 0.1.4 parsnip with lasso regularization regression (engine("glmnet")), R Tidymodels 0.1.4 parsnip with ridge regularization regression (engine("glmnet")), R forecast 8.15 auto ARIMA (auto.arima), R forecast 8.15 ARIMA(1,1,2) (arima), and R forecast 8.15 ARIMA(1,1,8) (arima), (10) 2 flowcharts are presented to describe the study well, research study flowchart and R Script flowchart (Appendix.C, ESM. [46][47].…”

May I See Your Credentials, Please? Displays of Pedagogical Expertise by Language Teaching Researchers

“…The justification of this strategy was that articles in highly cited journals have a greater likelihood of being cited, and thus hold greater influence in the field. Nonetheless, we acknowledge the usual caveats that impact factor does not automatically indicate academic quality, rigor, or importance (Kiesslich et al, 2021).…”