Slafer, GA (Slafer, Gustavo A.) Should crop scientists consider a journal's impact factor in deciding where to publish? EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY, 29 (4): 208-212 NOV 2008

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: slafer at pvcf.udl.es 

Author(s): Slafer, GA (Slafer, Gustavo A.) 

Title: Should crop scientists consider a journal's impact factor in 
deciding where to publish? 

Source: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY, 29 (4): 208-212 NOV 2008 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Author Keywords: Impact factor; Citation; Paper impact; scientist 
evaluation 

Abstract: To publish papers that have impact is indispensable for good 
scientists. It is frequently accepted that the impact factor (IF) of a 
journal reflects the likelihood of a paper to have impact. Many scientists 
may then attempt publishing their papers in journals with the highest 
possible IF. This is relevant for crop scientists as in many cases Our 
hypotheses may be relevant to agronomy/agriculture hot the product of Our 
work may be published in the more basic plant science journals, which in 
general have higher IF than agronomic journals. To test whether agronomic 
journals may be better vehicles than plant science journals for crop 
physiological work, I did an analysis of my own publications 
(only "standard" papers. disregarding reviews) relating their annual 
Citation rates against the IF of the journal in which they were published. 
The relationship was virtually inexistent, and my most frequently quoted 
papers were published in agronomic rather than in plant sciences journals. 
Conversely, restricting the analysis to the papers published within 
agronomic journals there was a relationship between the record of 
citations of the papers and the IF of the journals, Particularly if the 
analysis is restricted to the most quoted papers in each journal. I then 
analyzed the cases of three other well-recognized crop scientists, to 
check whether the findings with my results were exceptional, and in the 
three cases results were remarkably similar. Therefore, it seems that the 
journal IF might be a valuable criterion for choosing the best journal in 
which to publish our best contributions only when comparing within 
agronomic journals, but not within combinations of agronomy and plant 
science journals. This should be also taken into account ill evaluation 
processes when comparing scientists Working in related but not identical 
fields. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 

Addresses: Univ Lleida, ICREA Catalonian Inst Res & Adv Studies, Dept Crop 
& Forest Sci, Ctr UdL IRTA, Lleida 25198, Spain 

Reprint Address: Slafer, GA, Univ Lleida, ICREA Catalonian Inst Res & Adv 
Studies, Dept Crop & Forest Sci, Ctr UdL IRTA, Av Rovira Roure 191, Lleida 
25198, Spain. 

E-mail Address: slafer at pvcf.udl.es 

Cited Reference Count: 6 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV 

Publisher Address: PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS 

ISSN: 1161-0301 

DOI: 10.1016/j.eja.2008.07.001 

29-char Source Abbrev.: EUR J AGRON 

ISO Source Abbrev.: Eur. J. Agron. 

Source Item Page Count: 5 

Subject Category: Agronomy 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 364IU 

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