Tomorrow belongs to cites
May 20, 2013 5 Comments
Over the last decades, journal rankings moved from something only a few librarians cared about to something that is now critical to the future of professors and researchers. The same thing could happen to the individual citation metrics.
- Internet and open access movement is urging academia to reconsider the current model of research assessment, journal rankings and each of the phases of the publishing process, such as the private citation system, the growing role of repositories, the subscription and payment model , and even the peer review and impact indicators.
- Assessment of quality of research activity is needed, either of the journal, or research activity of department or individual, no one doubts it, the problem is what type; the ideal would be all of them. Some countries do this, they rate individual academics by levels, for example in UK (REF), Australia (EIA) or Spain (ANECA), having into account many more things, such as teaching assignments, research centers or stays in international universities.
- We have now journal rankings, but it will probably have less relevance in the future with open access, though it could be more necessary in the short term due to the initial confusion with the evaluation of research quality. If the move is to individual cites, and its calculations are improved, for example with a bias corrector by field of knowledge and years of experience, why the need of journal rankings and impact factors?, one could go directly to estimate individual cites and see the quality and prestige of the researcher, are there anything more real and tangible than cites?
This brings me again to the old question ever, publish/cited or perished? That is, the pressure to profs. I wonder if the same assessments could be made to other professionals, such as judges, politicians or even bankers. Don’t you think so?
How to publish in journals 
Yo estoy en un proceso de evaluación de la ANECA. ¿Cuál es tu opinión al respecto?, ¿la conoces en profundidad?
Para la ANECA, el factor de impacto de las revistas y el número de artículos publicados en ellas sigue siendo determinante (a pesar de años de docencia); además, como sabes, el proceso para conseguir publicar en revistas de impacto es muy lento.
Por otra parte, la necesidad de estancias en el extranjero, teniendo en cuenta las nuevas tecnología, no tendría por qué ser tan importante, ya que se puede trabajar de un modo colaborativo sin necesidad de una presencia real, que muchas veces no es posible por distintos motivos. ¿Qué opinas?
Conozco ANECA, me pude acreditar como Profesor Contratado Doctor en unos dos años y medio tras la lectura de la tesis doctoral, siendo profesor asociado. La base fueron dos JCRs, varios Econlit y Latindex, y un libro en una editorial con evaluación experta.
Opino lo mismo sobre las estancias en el extranjero, que tienen más relevancia para otras acreditaciones, por ejemplo para Titular/Catedrático, pero hay que suplirlo con investigación en diferentes centros y universidades de prestigio.
Lo de que publicar es lento depende, por ejemplo, me acaban de aceptar un artículo en un JCR con cierto impacto en menos de dos meses desde que se lo remití, incluyendo revisiones, ya se que no es normal, pero creo que fui realista con la calidad del paper y lo envié al editor adecuado que lo supo valorar.
I agree with your comments. The same assessments could be made to other professionals too. Such types of assessments are increasing the load on professors and researchers. It is becoming difficult to publish a research article in a scientific journal which has not been cited in your submitted article.
it is a fact that the old publish or perish system is nowadays a major responsible for the growing rates of scientific frauds and low or none scientific quality articles published.
In addition to this, there is also a closed group who generally do not entertain new comers (Sorry for commenting this). Indeed its an open secret now a days to researchers to experience about rejections and suddenly the same research paper will appear in leading journal after few days with different group of people. Be cautious before submitting to certain journal!!