Journal impact factor (JIF) is the main – if not the only – parameter used today to evaluate the quality of a published research and, consequently, the primary tool to estimate the prestige of a CV. Despite the fact that it is often considered an imperfect tool, to date, the finding of a valid alternative to JIF seems like a rather difficult task, says John Tregoning, Senior Lecturer at the Imperial College of London, on Nature.
“Rumours among junior faculty members are that reports of the death of the impact factor are greatly exaggerated. In a round of funding earlier this year, my research output was described as being in “high-impact journals” by one reviewer and in “middle-tier journals” by another, with knock-on effects on their grant scores. It is not unheard of for people to be told that the only articles that count are the ones in journals with an impact factor that is over an arbitrary value. Or, worse, that publishing in low-tier journals pollutes their CVs.”