Forwarded from PAMnet: GENERAL: IMU on use and abuse of citation stats

[Pikas, Christina K.]

FYI
(PAMnet is the e-mail list for the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics
Division of the Special Libraries Association)

Christina


-----Original Message-----
From: PAMnet [mailto:PAMNET at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Carol Hutchins
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:04 AM
To: PAMNET at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: GENERAL: IMU on use and abuse of citation stats

-------- Original Message --------
IMU-Net 29b: June 2008

Special issue on "Citation Statistics", a report analyzing impact
factors and similar statistics based on citations


Dear colleagues,

This is the first special issue of IMU-Net.

Today the IMU has released an important document, called "Citation
Statistics", which we want to bring to your attention.

IMU-Net 24 (July 2007) announced the creation of a committee on
"Quantitative assessment of research" that was asked to investigate
various aspects of impact factors and similar statistics based on
citations. The committee was appointed jointly by the Executive
Committees of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the
International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM),
and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). It consisted of:

- John Ewing (Providence, USA), chair, appointed by IMU
- Robert Adler (Haifa, Israel), appointed by IMS
- Peter Taylor (Melbourne, Australia), appointed by ICIAM.

The terms of reference given to the committee can be found at:
 
http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/2007/Charge-ComOnQuantAssessmRes07
0521.pdf

The committee has addressed this charge by reviewing and discussing
current practices along with an extensive literature on the use of
citations to evaluate research. Its report, written from the perspective
of mathematical scientists, was submitted to the Executive Committees of
IMU, ICIAM, and  IMS, and all three endorsed the report. The three
organizations are making the report "Citation Statistics" public today.

The report can be found at the following URL:
   http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/Report/CitationStatistics

A press release that was mailed out today to journalists is at:
 
http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/PressRelease/2008-06-11/CitationSt
atistics

This effort was triggered by numerous requests from IMU member
countries, mathematical societies, important mathematical institutions,
and individuals who reported the increasing use (and misuse) of impact
factors and similarly of other citation-based indicators to measure the
quality of research of individuals, departments, or whole institutions.

IMU suggests that the readers of IMU-Net not only read the report but
also distribute it to administrators and decision-makers who are
involved in the assessment of research quality, in order to give them a
mathematical science perspective. IMU, ICIAM and IMS have agreed that,
in order to assure as wide distribution as possible, journals,
newsletters and similar publications that are interested in publishing
this report will have the non-exclusive right to publish it in one of
their issues.
Please contact the newsletters/journals you are connected with and
suggest publication of the report "Citation Statistics".

All 3 organizations, representing the world community of pure, applied,
and industrial mathematics and statistics, hope that the careful
analysis and recommendations in this report will be considered by
decision-makers who are making use of citation data in research
assessment.


Best regards

L. Lovasz
IMU President

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