Regional science: Latin America should ditch Impact Factor

JAIME MONJEAU; JAIME RAU; CHRISTOPHER B. ANDERSON

NATURE

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2013 vol. 499 p. 29 - 29

0028-0836

Thompson-Reuters? Impact Factor (IF) 1 has been criticized as an inappropriate metric to evaluate scientific merit2,3,4. However, little focus has been made on the IF?s ultimate social and environmental impacts in areas like Latin America. The IF?s ?collateral damage? occurs for several reasons: a) since conservation and ecology articles have lower IFs than disciplines like biotechnology and medicine, subsequent IF-linked stimulus funding is less; b) within ecology, applied journals have even lower IFs than theoretical ones; c) top-tier IF journals seek global issues to be more cited and increase their IF; d) consequently, regionally-important environmental matters are not attractive to top journals; e) IF metrics change individual?s incentives, rewarding them for getting into high-IF publications rather than applying science to regional problems; and f) ultimately, many of the region?s brightest minds become enslaved by the ?IF syndrome,? even while their socio-ecosystems deteriorate around them.