Free-Riding on Power Laws: questioning the validity of the Impact Factor as a measure of research quality in organization studies

[Eugene Garfield]

Title: Free-Riding on Power Laws: questioning the validity of the Impact Factor 
as a measure of research quality in organization studies

Author(s): Baum, JAC (Baum, Joel A. C.)
Source: ORGANIZATION  Volume: 18  Issue: 4  Pages: 449-466  DOI: 
10.1177/1350508411403531  Published: JUL 2011  

Abstract: The simplicity and apparent objectivity of the Institute for Scientific 
Information's Impact Factor has resulted in its widespread use to assess the 
quality of organization studies journals and by extension the impact of the 
articles they publish and the achievements of their authors. After describing 
how such uses of the Impact Factor can distort both researcher and editorial 
behavior to the detriment of the field, I show how extreme variability in article 
citedness permits the vast majority of articles-and journals themselves-to free-
ride on a small number of highly-cited articles. I conclude that the Impact 
Factor has little credibility as a proxy for the quality of either organization 
studies journals or the articles they publish, resulting in attributions of journal 
or article quality that are incorrect as much or more than half the time. The 
clear implication is that we need to cease our reliance on such a non-scientific, 
quantitative characterization to evaluate the quality of our work.

Language: English
Document Type: Article
Author Keywords: citation analysis; impact factor; journal quality; research 
quality
KeyWords Plus: CITATIONS; SCIENCE; MODEL

Addresses: Univ Toronto, Rotman Sch Management, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6, 
Canada
Reprint Address: Baum, JAC (reprint author), Univ Toronto, Rotman Sch 
Management, 105 St George St Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6, Canada

E-mail Address: jbaum at rotman.utoronto.ca
IDS Number: 786EI
ISSN: 1350-5084
URL: http://org.sagepub.com/content/18/4/449.abstract