When the journal influence factor is "Great Leap Forward", when will the abuse of abuse?

"The greatest abuse" of influencing factor

It is to measure the quality of scientific output

And the standard for academic evaluation

On June 28, 2022, the issue of influence factors of the 2021 annual journal of scientific circles was released. Although it has long been expected, the "expansion" of the influencing factor under the catalysis of the new crown epidemic will continue, but the "skyrocketing" of the influencing factors of many journals is still surprising. The influence factors of the four major medical journals are almost two to three times more than last year. "Liu Ye Dao" "rushed to" the list with an ultra -high influence factor of 202.731. Of the 254 research categories, more than 21,000 journals in 114 countries and regions, a total of seven influencing factors were "broken" for the first time.

These numbers were unimaginable two years ago. Taking "Liu Ye Dao" as an example, before the new crown epidemic, its impact factor increased by 10 % to 15 % each year. In 2020, the influence factors of "Liu Ye Dao" rose more than 30 %. In 2021, it was "sitting on the rocket", an increase of 155.58 %. In 2021, the increase of the influence factors of the three top issues of "Nature", "Science" and "Cell" reached 30 %, 33 %, and 61 %, respectively.

Kori Wei'an is the publisher of the factors. Based on its Web of Science database every year, the Journal Citation Report is released. The editor -in -chief and editor -in -chief of Web of Science and Editor -in -chief Dr. Nanta Quadri pointed out "China News Weekly" that 65 % of the journal influence factors have increased this year, and some of them have significantly increased. This is very significant. "Ultra -high reference" related. "The popularity of the new crown affects all aspects of society, which is reflected in the literature of multiple disciplines, not just in the field of medicine, biomedicine and public health," she said.

Photo/Visual China

A crazy "bet"

The key factors that determine the influence of the factors are the number of references of the journal articles. If you look closely at the "Journal Quotation Report 2022", you can find that almost all the journals of the "Great Leap Forward" of the "Great Leap Forward" are found.

According to the data of "Liu Ye Dao", the thesis at the top of the list is "The Clinical Features of Patients with New Crown Viruses infected", with a reference number of 6478. The maximum number of references in the previous years of the journal generally did not exceed 1,000. Other high -lead articles involve clinical research, virus origin, and epidemiological characteristics of patients with new crown deaths. The first eight high -ranking articles of "New England Medical Magazine" are all new themes. In the top ten articles of "Science" magazine, there are nine new championships. Generally speaking, hundreds of references in a single article are already high, and thousands of articles are "super high."

Professor Ive Fasin, a professor at the School of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Belgium, pointed out that under the special "excitation" of the epidemic, the impact of the impact on the impact of the journal on the journal is "destructive." He found that, especially for some special magazines with small influence factors, by publishing a large number of new crowns, the number of references of the entire magazine can be increased in a short time, and its impact factor can be greatly increased.

Founded in 1997, the "Medical Viruses Magazine" was not yet referenced in the first year of the magazine in the first year of the magazine. However, in the list in 2021, a maximum quotation article reached 627 citations, and 7 papers were quoted more than 250 times, all related to the new crown. In 2021, the magazine influence factor reached 20.693, an increase of 789.2 % over a year ago.

A fact that is often ignored is that for most journals, more than 95 % of articles have only one digit or ten -digit reference, that is, the "contribution rate" of different articles on the impact factor of the journal is very different.

Since the birth factor was born in 1975, its algorithm has not changed. Two years as the data collection window period, the ratio between the total number of references and the total publishing items is calculated. For example, the impact factor in a period of 2021 was the total number of references received by all projects published in the first two years of the journal, except for all the number of "referenceable items" published in the journal in 2019 and 2020. In other words, this is a reference average.

Professor David Korkhon, Professor of Pharmacure to the University of London, has been committed to criticizing the unreasonable algorithm of the influence factors. He pointed out in the article "Challenge Factor" Hegemony "published in 2018 that the reference data of the 858 papers published in" Nature "in 1999 showed that 16 % of the articles" contributed "almost half of the number of references of the entire magazine. Another update study shows that about 70 % of the number of papers in most of the journals in 2016 is lower than the average level. "In other words, the current calculation method of influencing factor does not truly reflect the overall level of the journal," Korkhong told China News Weekly.

Over the years, many scientists have criticized the factors algorithm. Some experts suggest that they no longer calculate the average value, but change to medium or geometric average, while others try to find some alternative indicators.

Web of Science data shows that by the end of 2020, there are 70,000 scientific papers about the new crown. Like the vaccine competition, academic journals have also shortened the review cycle and accelerated the progress of publishing. These have increased the quantity of the dissertation unprecedentedly. In addition, it is worth noting that the influence factor data in 2021 shows that even in the fields of medicine and biomedicine, most journals have one or multiple articles about the new crown epidemic, such as the impact of the blockade policy on socioeconomic and economy. How does the supply chain interrupt affect agriculture. Freid Paulos, a professor of the Social Neuroscience Laboratory of the Social Neuroscience of the Factor Evolution of Factors, told China News Weekly that researchers from different disciplines will turn the research direction to the new crown. They try to get higher attention and more attention and More scientific research funds have a larger scale of funding research than ever before. The journal also knows that "everything related to the new crown" can improve the impact factor.

In 2018, the Department of Psychological Sciences of Paulos and the Department of Psychological Sciences of the University of London, Somaron Clarz, a professor at the Social Neuroscience Laboratory of Lubak University, jointly published the paper "Impact Four F also". The thesis author Pauls and others mentioned the current "new crown research fever" in the reply to "China Weekly". They pointed out in unison: "This is the journal betting." Paul and others believe that the influencing factor is the journal " "Currency", the higher the influence factors, the more contributions in the journal in the next few years, and the greater the economic income and recognition.

The Chinese academic journal "Cell Research" was founded in 1990 and was co -sponsored by the head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Molecular Cell Innovation Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Cell Biology Society. In recent years, its influence factor has been jumping. In 2021, it reached 46.297, which has been closer than the influence factors in 2020. It ranks first in domestic journals and also won the journal in the field of life sciences in Asia. Light".

The editor -in -chief of "Cell Research" pointed out to China News Weekly that this year, the impact factors of the journal have greatly improved the contribution of the "ultra -high reference" of the new crown thesis, especially in the papers published in 2020. Other papers are much taller. However, under the "new crown heat", the journal did not deliberately publish articles related to the new crown, but pay attention to balance, and equally equally published with other papers in publishing standards. From 2020 to 2021, the new crown articles published in "Cell Research" accounted for 25 % to 30 % of the whole magazine.

Li Party explained that since the epidemic, the receiving baseline of "Cell Research" has been continuously improved. For example, in early 2020, the first new crown thesis published in the journal was "very simple". Drug screening, but considering that "a large number of things were unknown at that time, the article was conducive to increasing the understanding of the new crown in the scientific community. In the later period, with the follow -up of various animal models and clinical trials, the journal collection standards have also evolved from "a simple discovery" to "major breakthrough progress". The situation has a very accurate judgment and appropriate grasp, "he said.

On February 9, 2021, medical staff were taking care of the severe patients with new crown pneumonia in a hospital in Alall in the southeast of France. Photo/Visual China

There are many "gameplay"

In addition to the uneven distribution of reference, another most often criticized algorithm defect points to "unbalanced between denominator and molecules". Shu Fei, a special professor at Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology, pointed out "China News Weekly" that the influencing factor statistics are all references received by a journal within two years. But the biggest problem is that these references are targeted at all types of publications in the journal. In addition to thesis and summary, they also include social, journalism, and scientific communication. The former is called "referenceable project", and the latter is called "non -cited project". Calculating the dependency of the sub -public formula is only included in the former, and both of them are included. "Why the number of references of" Nature "and" Science "is so high, because many quotes from news and communications published from magazines."

Shu Fei pointed out that the influencing factor algorithm is a formula for the 1970s. From the 1970s to the 1990s, journals rarely published articles such as communications and news. And now, from the overall perspective, about half of the "quotable projects" and "non -quotable projects" published by the journals.

In addition, Vincent Larievier, a professor of information science at the University of Montreal, criticized the influencing factors based on the two -year reference window and did not apply to all disciplines. Different discipline papers have different cycles of reference peak. For example, the biomedical papers have accumulated an average of 50 % of citations within 8 years after publishing, while social science research takes at least 13 years. Ivan Olance, a well -known American journalist, news editor, and "removal observation" website founder, also found that the pursuit of influencing factors may delay some journals. According to the statistics of the "Revised Observation" website, the average dismissal period is about three years.

Several professors pointed out that the most important way to influence the factors "game" is to require submitters to increase the self -quotation of the articles in the journal in the review proposal. In recent years, due to the increase in recognition of the "self -introduction rate" of the journal, some journals have turned to a more vague "mutual quotation", and the journal of "close relationships" has formed a "mutual league".

Paul Stephen, an honorary professor at Economics and State Economic Research Bureau of Georgia State University, has served as a member of the Editorial Committee of Science Review. In the case of "request", many authors will also "actively" increase their own "expectations" before the submission. In 2019, "Nature" surveyed 4,300 researchers. When asked, "Is it because of the pressure to quote extra studies in the paper because of the pressure of his peer?" 66 % of people answered "yes". In a large -scale study of journals in 2016, the researchers proposed an indicator of "self -introduction" to measure the "self -introduction" of the journal, that is, "influencing factor self -introduction bias" (hereinafter referred to as "bias value"). It shows that the impact factor of the journal is affected by the "abnormal" self -cited "abnormal". Ten years after 2005, journals have become more and more common, "this is consistent with the increasing obsession of people in the past ten years." In addition, the study also found that after 2010, the number of journals in the field of life sciences higher than 3 in the field of life sciences was almost twice as much as possible.

Over the years, influencing factor publishers have been trying to "identify" the "non -normal self -introduction" of the journal, such as listing the number of "excluding the influence factor after self -introduction" next to the impact factor of the journal to compare; or for the "spontaneous quotation rate "Excessive journals conduct warnings, and more serious, they will remove them from the possession of the influencing factors. In 2020, because of the" abnormal citation behavior ", Kori Wei'an suddenly" removed "33 journals. Since this year, the molecular situation is too large during the calculation of the influence factor.

In recent years, there have been two new trends published in the paper. On the one hand, more and more journals will put articles from peer review before the official publication of the journals will be placed online for readers for "early visit"; on the other hand, the new crowns will be new. Under the overwhelming demand for rapid publication, pre -printed articles directly published by colleagues were directly published by colleagues. This article ushered in a big explosion after 2020. According to the statistics of "Nature", more than 30,000 articles published in 2020 are pre -print books, accounting for 17 % to 30 % of the total number of new crown research papers.

Starting in 2020, the number of references to the early visit of the article was included in the influence factor statistics. According to Kerori data, from 2020 to 2021, the number of early visit articles increased by 56 %, which contributed nearly 3 million references to the calculation of the influencing factors in 2021. Paul quickly discovered that some journals will postpone the official publication of the article, so that they can get as many reference accumulation as possible online. These references are only included in the molecules. Only when the article is officially published in the journal, the project will be being officially published. Drive to the denominator.

Paul and others pointed out that pre -printing this article does not count the impact factor calculation because of its peer review, but the journal editor will tend to publish the content of high quotations on the pre -printed website to form a "prejudice". Under this prejudice, the so -called big V professor in social media is more advantageous. They can share the article on various social platforms before the peer review and article officially published to increase the traffic of the dissertation.

"This is a problem of two dilemmas" "

Paul believes that the "biggest abuse" of influencing factors is the standard for measuring the quality and academic evaluation of scientific output.

The founder of the American Institute of Science Institute of Science Institute of Institute of Euge Garfield originally designed the influencing factor to "make suggestions" to subscribe to the library. By using the average reference rate, you can prompt which journals of the library have gained more to get more journals to get more journals reader. "Impact factor is a journal indicator, not to evaluate researchers." Dr. Quadri emphasized the "China News Weekly" that it is "inappropriate and irresponsible to evaluate the scientific researchers. "This is like measuring a person's height, not measuring each individual alone, but measuring the average height, which is meaningless." Larryvaya said.

Since the 1980s, there are more and more common incentives for publishing articles in international journals in the world. In 1986, Britain took the lead in adopting the "Research and Evaluation Assessment". Based on the results of the assessment results, one of the important indicators of the assessment was to publish a paper in the journal. Chinese research institutions have published international papers for "pricing" for scholars since 1990, and directly linked to the influence factors of the journal of the article. The higher the impact factors, the more bonuses.

In a study in 2017, Shu Fei and others counted the scientific research award policy between 100 universities in China from 1999 to 2016. He found that in the two top publications of "Nature" and "Science", the average bonus was from 2008 from 2008 The annual $ 26,000 climbed to $ 43,800 in 2016. Web of Science data shows that from 1995 to 2013, the number of international papers published in China increased 17 times, from 13,000 to 232,000.

Paul Stephen, a member of the former "Science" review editorial committee, pointed out "China News Weekly" that universities are increasingly concerned about influencing factors, partly because they play an increasingly important role in the university rankings, and in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, in turn, on the other hand, in turn, In order to get a higher university ranking, universities will increasingly emphasize the impact factors in the recruitment and promotion decision -making.

Bruce Albertz, a well -known American biochemist and former dean of the National Academy of Sciences, served as editor -in -chief of Science magazine from 2009 to 2013. In the article published in 2013, the "Impact Factor Turn" pointed out that the "most destructive consequences" brought by the influencing factor is that "induction" researchers turn to more likely to publish articles or generate high reference research fields, and inhibit inhibition They want to engage in "high risk" or have potential pioneering research. Due to the eagerness to publish papers, the quality of thesis is not high, which can explain the "repeatable crisis" of the current science, "there are a large number of research results in published biomedical papers." In December 2012, more than 150 places were Scientists and dozens of scientific organizations, funding institutions, and journals including Science signed the "San Francisco Research and Evaluation Declaration". It is no longer a decision element that hires, promoted or scientific research funding hired by professors.

The European Union has been promoting the "academic evaluation system reform" since the second half of 2020. On June 10, 2022, the EU Council passed the draft reform and released the final text of the agreement on July 20. According to the agreement, the new evaluation system should be mainly based on qualitative judgments, with peer review as the core, and at the same time, it can be appropriately "responsible" quantitative indicators. The agreement also recommends that the new evaluation system covers a wider range of research results, not just journal papers, such as pre -printing books, investigation reports, software, packets, patents, etc. to avoid using various international rankings in academic evaluation.

"China News Weekly" reporters sorted out some of the recruitment and promotion policies of European and American universities, and found that the following requirements are often seen: "How many journal articles on how many influencing factor 5 or above"; "Posted"; "Published on a journal with high influence" and so on.

Paul pointed out that in Europe, the peak of universities obsessed with influencing factors to evaluate scientific achievements approximately ten years ago. In recent years, with the changes in the policy, this trend has slowed down. "But it is still there and it has not disappeared. "Paul said.

In China, the reform of academic evaluation is also underway. In July 2020, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China issued a clear request that "the number of papers is not linked to the bonus of the number of thesis and the impact factor is linked to the bonus." In November of that year, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly issued a document, stipulating that "cancel the rewards of individuals and departments directly based on the relevant indicators of SCI papers to avoid utilitarian orientation." However, Shu Fei pointed out that after the release of the new policy of "decoupling", some schools no longer give the dissertation rewards in cash, but instead "linked". Published, "This has not changed China's current scientific research ecology."

Several professors have pointed out that evaluating any scientific research results need to read articles carefully, and strive to understand and pay attention to the repetitiveness of the results. "It is difficult to imagine which measures can really achieve these goals without paying too much costs. This It is a problem that has a dilemma. "Pauls said.

Send 2022.8.1 Total Issue 1054 "China News Weekly" magazine

Magazine title: The influence factor "game" under the new crown epidemic situation

Reporter: [email protected])

Operation editor: Xiao Ran

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