Reforming Research Assessment: A Tough Nut to Crack
Alison Mudditt looks at the recently released TOP Factor from the Center for Open Science, and the bigger picture of shifting the nature of research assessment.
Study: Recommender Systems May Increase Citations
TrendMD may drive traffic, saves, and citations, according to a new study by the founders and employees of TrendMD. Deeper analysis of their results reveal overstated results and a lack of context. Should these papers be considered sound science just another form of marketing?
Oh, What A Tangled Web! Citation Network Underscores Editorial Conflicts of Interest
The separation of powers is as important in academic publishing as it is in government.
Skeletons In Their Closet: Clarivate Issues Editorial Concern But Takes No Further Action
A public allegation of citation manipulation among 5 journals deserves a public inquiry.
Journal Growth Lowers Impact Factor
Phil Davis examines how publication timing can affect annual Journal Impact Factor scores.
Guest Post: Do Journal Article Recommendation Features Change Reader Behavior?
Researchers say journal article recommendations are useful. Do these publisher platform features influence user behavior? How might they increase discovery and serendipity in the researcher’s workflow? A series of studies provide new evidence of increased reader engagement.
How Much Citation Manipulation Is Acceptable?
Is citation manipulation a moral problem or an accounting problem?
Citation Performance Indicators — A Very Short Introduction
A brief summary of the main citation indicators used today.
Supply, Demand, and the Subscription Model in Scholarly Publishing — An Analysis
An overview of usage trends across libraries and journals indicates that usage is generally stable or up, archives remain of interest, and consumption doesn’t align with authorship or funding.
CiteScore–Flawed But Still A Game Changer
The real innovation of CiteScore is not another performance metric, but a new marketing model focused on editors.
Peering across the Copyright DMZ
A new book reviews various instances of piracy in the media industry and proposes using Big Data analyses as a means to manage it.
Is Publication Success a Matter of Dumb Luck?
Researchers may publish their best work at any point in their careers, a new study reports. This is not the same as success being the result of random forces or just plain “dumb luck.”
Visualizing Citation Cartels
Citation network maps may indicate when gaming is taking place. Proving intention is a different story.
How to Manipulate a Citation Histogram
Citation indexes need to provide standardized citation histograms for editors and publishers. Without them, it is unlikely that they will be widely adopted. At worse, it will encourage the production of histograms that selectively highlight or obscure the data.
Optical Illusions — Shifting to Citation Distributions Only Makes It Easier to Fool the Eye
A proposal to substitute graphs of citation distributions for impact factors introduces many problems the authors don’t seem to have fully grasped, including unintentionally bolstering the importance of the very metric they seek to diminish.