ABST&Comment:Hook, Impact Factors

[Gretchen Whitney]

The author, editor in chief of the Scand. J. Rehab Med  makes a strong case
for improving the quality of what is published and suggests that this is the
only way journals can survive. He quotes an  author from the Eur. J.
Surgery(Bindslev)"If a journal is to survive it will be necessary for the
articles to be of sufficiently high quality that an increased sale of single
copies can compensate for the decline in subscription to the paper version
of the journal."
Of further interest to citation analysts is his list of references listed in
brief below. Instead of citing Garfield he cites K. Raivo who asserts that
"I am sure that the inventor of the impact factor, Eugene Garfield, would
find this interesting and perhaps a bit amusing, since he himself has
repeatedly warned against oversimplified use of his factor for various
purposes."
He is referring to the fact that in Finland the impact factor "has even been
used to calculate the amount of money transferred from the state budget to
the university central hospitals for the extra costs of medical training and
research."  He also cites another interesting letter by Opthof on "Sense and
nonsense about the impact factor".

The following information is reproduced from the Web of Science with
permission of ISI http://www.isinet.com.
 <<...>>

Author(s):      Hook O
Title:  Scientific communications - History, electronic journals and impact
factors
Source:         SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF REHABILITATION MEDICINE 1999, Vol
31, Iss 1, pp 3-7
No. cited references:   18
Publisher:      SCANDINAVIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Addresses:      Hook O, Univ Uppsala Hosp, Dept Rehabil Med, SE-75185
Uppsala, Sweden. Univ Uppsala Hosp, Dept Rehabil Med, SE-75185 Uppsala,
Sweden.
Author Keywords:        scientific journals; history; impact factors;
electronic journals
KeywordsPlus:   MEDICAL JOURNALS
Abstract:       This paper gives a short history of the development of
scientific journals. During the last century there has been an increase of
7% a year in the number of scientific journals published, i.e. a doubling of
the total number of new journals every 10-15 years. The only way to survive
this information flood is to increase the quality of our scientific
publications. There is also increasing internationalization among the so
called national scientific journals. The Internet has grown exponentially
and now plays a role in the exchange of scientific information, There are
many advantages to this, for example, rapid publishing, the cataloguing of
articles according to subject, easy access to articles wherever computers
are available. There are, however, still many problems to solve, amongst
them the archiving of electronic journals and the protection of the
integrity of information. The ranking system of measuring the quality of
scientific journals using impact factors is of great value, but its
importance has been over-exaggerated.
Cited references:       *STYL MAN COMM CO-1994-SCI-STYL-FORM-CBE-MA
*SWED NAT RES COU-1997-EV-SCI-REP-V18-P8
 *WHO-1993-WHO-ED-STYL-MAN BINDSLEV A-1997-EUR-J-SURG-V163-P243
 FLETCHER RH-1992-J-INTERN-MED-V232-P215
HALL GM-1994-WRITE-PAPER
HUTH EJ-1997-EUR-SCI-EDITING-V23-P41
 KIRCZ JG-1998-J-DOC-V54-P210
KRONICK DA-1976-ORIGINS-DEV-SCI-TECH-P47
LANG TA-1997-AM-COLL-PHYSICIANS-P367
LOCK S-1992-J-INTERN-MED-V232-P199
OPTHOF T-1997-CARDIOVASC-RES-V33-P1
 PRICE DJD-1961-SCI-BABYLON
RAIVIO K-1997-B-EUR-ASS-SCI-EDITOR-V23-P80
 SEGLEN PO-1997-BRIT-MED-J-V314-P498
SIVERTSEN G-1991-INT-VIA-J-SCI-SCHOLA
ZUCKERMAN H-1971-MINERVA-V9-P66
Source item page count:         5
Publication Date:       MAR

29-char source abbrev:  SCAND J REHABIL MED
Publisher address:      PO BOX 2959 TOYEN, JOURNAL DIVISION CUSTOMER
SERVICE, N-0608 OSLO, NORWAY


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